EqualiTEA III: Sustainable Livelihoods for 1500 Smallholder Farming Households (7500 people) in The Extreme North of Bangladesh

Mid Term Review

March 2017

Traidcraft Exchange Introduction

Bangladesh is one of the most deprived country in the region; incidence of poverty is very high particularly in extreme north Tetulia, Panchgarh Sadar in Panchgarh district and Baliadangi in Thakurgaon district. The soil here is sandy, acidic and bears close affinity with the soil of the old Himalayan basin. The growing tea sector has ushered in a new hope for enhancing the standard of socio-economic life and women empowerment in this region. The STG (Small Tea Growers) sector is now an important sector for decreasing the gap between increasing domestic demand for tea and slow growth of production in Bangladesh. This sector has a huge potential in meeting the increasing domestic demand for tea. Therefore, the EqualiTEA project, has a vital role to play in bringing a visible change in the lives of the poor farmers. The EqualiTEA III project planned to support small and marginal farmers in Northern Bangladesh to grow tea to give farmers a diversified, sustainable source of income and reduce poverty. The project aims to build an inclusive value chain and to encourage smallholder farmers to work collectively and collaboratively.

Duration 36 months (1 October 2015 to 30 September 2018) Budget £ 614,565 Partners - Traidcraft Exchange - Bikash Bangladesh Location Panchgarh District (Tetulia and Panchgarh Sadar Upazilas) and Thakurgaon District (Baliadangi Upazila) Target Beneficiaries - By the end of Year 1, 1500 Smallholder Households Tea Growers have been reached. - Farmers are organized into 60 groups (average size: 25 households) Field Staff - 6 staff: 1 Project Coordinator of EqualiTEA working with 5 Field Facilitators (FF). They are also called Project Officers. - Panchgarh Sadar – 02 FF - Tetulia - 01 FF - Baliadangi - 2 FF Management Support Field teams are managed and supervised by the local implementing partner Bikash Bangladesh based in Panchgarh.

Project Outcome 1,500 smallholder farming households in the extreme north of Bangladesh are reducing poverty and making more sustainable livelihoods through tea cultivation Project Outputs 1.1,500 smallholder farming households are working collectively and collaboratively to increase their resilience. 2.1,500 smallholder farming households have improved their agricultural practices. Out of 1500 STGs, 812 STGs have started cultivating tea and yet to see increase in income through tea cultivation. 3.1,500 smallholder farming households have appropriate on-going services/support for agricultural cultivation. 4.Ongoing policy works to keep systems in place to support smallholder farming households to diversify their income and increase their resilience.

Objectives The purposes of this evaluation are • To learn from experience specially to interpret the successes and failures so that both ongoing and future activities can be improved. • To investigate transparency in responsible utilization of the resources • To deepen knowledge and understanding of the assumptions, options and limits of the project activities • To improve communication and foster understanding within and between the PMT members, partners and donors.

Achievements till date

- At the beginning of the project implementation, the project has conducted a day long Staff orientation program for capacity Building of project staff on Group Formation and Project Management. All project staff and Executive Director (ED) from Bikash Bangladesh actively participated in this training. Both of these trainings were conducted by Traidcraft personnel.

- The project had successfully completed its baseline survey and well-being survey. The project team has successfully carried out Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) with 60 Groups for needs assessment and group selection based on the criteria set for target participants.

- In the project till date, a total of 3000 STGs have been mobilized into 60 Primary Producer Societies (PPS) formed in the project area of Tetulia, Panchgarh, Sadar and Baliadangi Upazila in Thakurgaon district. All of the 60 groups elected their 9-member governing body to operate the group; and selected 2 BSPs to receive technical training so as to serve their needs better.

- From the 60 groups, 2 members (president and secretary) from each group were selected as group leaders. Hence, a total of 120 Group leaders received training on effective group operation. 120 GLs have knowledge on effective group operation. 3000 STGs received training on effective group operation. All trainings were conducted by GLs. The STGs now have clear understanding and education about effective group operation.

- The project encouraged the farmers and made them introduced to regular savings.120 Group leaders received training on group savings and investment scheme and also 3000 STGs received training on group savings and investment scheme. After this training, 120 Group leaders and 3000 STGs have knowledge on the topics. 60 functional groups have been doing meetings regularly every month. They are collecting savings regularly and creating awareness about the benefit of working together and ensuring that the small tea growers are engaged in collective action. 52 PPSs established financial relationship with banks and other FIs.

- A total of 120 Barefoot Service Provider received technical training on Income Generating Activities. 120 BSPs have knowledge on crop cultivation and livestock rearing.3000 STGs received training on income generating activities. All trainings were conducted by those BSPs. The STGs now have clear understanding and education about alternative livelihood option.

- 3000 STGs (60 Groups) received training on modern agricultural practice, they have knowledge on modern agricultural practice which would be helpful and they would benefit from its application on their fields. - A total of 120 Barefoot Service Provider received 03 module technical training on Tea Cultivation. 120 BSPs have gained sufficient knowledge on 03 module technical training on Tea Cultivation. And they conducted the same trainings for 3000 STGs. The STGs now have clear understanding and education about tea cultivation.

- Consultation meeting between prospective smallholder tea growers and Govt. and Private Stakeholders was held with view to introducing and linking the STGs with public service providers (extension officers).

- Linkage building and consultation meetings between farmer groups and tea factories were held all in 3 Upazilas.

- Linkage building regional workshops between smallholder farmers and local service providers held at Muktijoddha Complex Bhaban, Panchgarh. Respective district and Upazila govt. officers of three Upazilas (Sadar and Tetulia Upazila under Panchgarh district, Baliadangi Upazila under Thakurgaon district) and also different level stakeholders like BLFs, journalist, one or two participants from each group attended the workshop. They are linked to public service providers to whom they can now go for any services easily.

- An Association is formed in Tetulia Upazila and two more associations are in the process of formation and a combined regional association will be formed incorporating all three associations.

- Tea sector research and tea policy paper preparation works are being conducted by Mr. Kawsar Rahman, consultant hired by TXUK for policy research. He already conducted two important Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with high officials and published articles on those interviews in the leading newspaper of the country named ‘Daily Janakantha’. The two interviews were – one with the honorable commerce minister Mr Tofayel Ahmed and another one with a senior secretary Mr Hetayet Ullah Al Mamun. The Commerce Minsiter said “Small scale tea cultivation has the potential to bring revolutionary change for the country’s economy. This concept is transforming the lives of our small farmers in the poverty-stricken areas. We will be with all the organizations providing support to promote small tea growing.” On the other hand, honorable Senior Secretary expressed his hope in his speech saying “small tea growing can eradicate poverty from rural people’s lives. 1600 hectors of land will be under small tea growing in near future and there will be tea action center in the North of Bangladesh.” The scanned copy of the articles is attached in the annex 7.

- The project provided 16,24,000 Sapling (BDT 79,57,600 @ 4.9/ Sapling) among 812 selected small tea growers based on their needs. The project provided BDT 18,38,500 as partial credit among 812 selected small tea growers based on their need assessment. The credit support is helping to achieve increased technical and organizational capacity of the STGs to improve their livelihoods.

- The overall expenditure incurred under the EqualiTea III budget is 51.474% after the completion of 18 months. The major expenditure is on Project activities which is an evidence of the successful implementation of all target activities.

Relevance Before the project, extensive research was done to know the viability of the tea industry, its value chain and the beneficiary requirements. In 2000, Bangladesh Tea Board did soil test in the extreme north of Bangladesh and recommended the land as tea growing region in the extreme north of Bangladesh based on which the target locations were decided. The beneficiaries are chosen from small and marginal farmers (owning 1.44 acre of land) and half of them are women as the project took a household approach; they were targeted because of their vulnerability since women farmers are characterized by social exclusion from social and government welfare services and from decision-making in household. Their involvement in community-based agricultural resource management is often minimal due to the prevailing social stigma as well as time and mobility constraints. So, the project chose a strategy called Household approach where all the groups are formed with both husband and wife from each household. As a result, women are able to demonstrate their abilities and are being elected in the leadership positions in the group committee and being able to show success for the project.

Traidcraft Bangladesh has extensive experience in the project area. Based on the experiences acquired through the implementation of EqualiTea I & II projects, Traidcraft is not only aware of the challenges of the small tea growers in the project area but also could identify the relevant and suitable activities those are relevant for all the stakeholders of the project. In addition to group and association formation, all other interventions of EquiliTea III like making bridge with government and private service providers, knowledge dissemination trainings, Group savings and investment scheme, soil testing, technology transfer, marketing supports etc. were very much appropriate for not only the direct beneficiaries but also for other stakeholders.

There was no inclusive plan by government or any other NGOs to promote smallholder tea growing in the region though there were huge potential for it. A lot of lands owned by small farmers were fallow for a long time as they were not suitable for any crop cultivation. The soil was suitable only for tea cultivation. Many farmers lost their land since they had to sell them off for almost no money to the large tea estate owners. Because of their remote location and poor soil composition, smallholder farmers depend on a limited number of crops. Only source of income was low paid day labouring in tea gardens of large tea estates. Landless labours also struggled to find enough work in local area. Failure to get a decent yield or a fair price therefore has a significant and negative impact on their ability to afford basics such as food and healthcare. The focus of the project has been to improve the lot of these marginal and poverty stricken farmers of the area to benefit by bringing them into tea cultivation business in their small land holdings which is most of the times less than 1.5 acre.

In the target districts, smallholder farmers had very few resources to invest in their agriculture. A lack of access to proper sources of credit was preventing farmers from improving their agricultural practices, purchasing quality inputs such as fertilisers and irrigation, and entering/expanding into tea cultivation. The project took initiative to make tea saplings available to such farmers for free and also gave them a small amount to start tea cultivation. The project also simultaneously invested in human resources in organizing the STGs into groups and providing trainings for their capacity building for tea cultivation. The savings schemes undertaken by the groups through the project also addressed the challenge of lack of access to finance for growth of the target farmers.

The beneficiaries lacked skills and knowledge about good, environmentally-friendly agricultural practices. They did not have the necessary know-how about good agricultural practices that could help them get the most out of their sandy, acidic soil. The project included trainings ranging across topics of group management dynamics, decision making, negotiating skills - technical guides to improved production from fertilising, pest control to maintenance (pruning, plucking techniques) - awareness of how they fit into / interact with the other parts of the tea value chain.

Most farmers were unaware of their rights and of government responsibilities and lacked a collective identity. Hence, they were even more vulnerable, and unable to benefit from shared learning, economies of scale (through group purchasing/selling), collective negotiation and lobbying/advocacy etc. They also lacked access to services or support. And finally, the project linked the STGs to the necessary contacts from government and private service providers for information and for influencing policy.

The project is equally beneficial and supportive to its different stakeholders like the public and private service providers. Government officials reported an increase in outreach with the help of the project activities. Private services providers (BSPs) have reported to have expanded their businesses and customer base by engaging themselves with the farmers’ groups. Level of purchases by the beneficiary farmers was relatively much lower in the past since they are marginal farmers, and not aware about the right and appropriate doses of inputs. As a result of the project activities, demand for (quality) inputs have increased at producer level. Revenues have also increased for the direct beneficiaries and other stakeholders like traders.

Efficiency

The efficiency of the project design and delivery has been good so far. The project has so far efficiently managed the challenges that came during the implementation of planned activities. The project management team has been very careful about the cost-effective delivery of target activities.

The overall expenditure incurred under the EqualiTea II budget is 51.5% after the completion of 18 months. The major expenditure is on project activities which is an evidence of the successful implementation of all target activities. Not all members of the PPS organized have been provided with the saplings, while the members who have availed credit already are also keen to cover more area under tea cultivation if more saplings are given as credit. Shortage of saplings locally and higher unit costs had affected the supplies and hence this activity was delayed for a short span of time than the planned schedule. This has to some extent affected the efficiency of the project as the sapling plantation and overall tea cultivation had got delayed due to this.

The implementation mechanism is very strong. The number of staff is average compared to the efficient delivery they are providing. 1 worker, on average, is covering 12 groups with 600 people. There are 5 field facilitators and a project coordinator. The project staff are highly competent, working well and maintaining team cohesiveness under the supervision of Executive Director, Bikash Bangladesh. The project has taken Traidcraft’s long tested group approach which enables one activity to reach 25 households of the group. This is the core factor which enabled a small, highly-competent and cohesive field team to control such large beneficiary numbers. While staff costs may seem to have a relatively high share of project costs (29.74%), but it is justifiable as the crucial project activities of identifying, forming, organizing groups and training them to function depends completely upon the field staff. Staff retention is also high in this project. Most of the staff that work in EquiliTea III had prior experience of working with Traidcraft Exchange and Bikash under previous projects like EqualiTea I and EqualiTea II. Thus, the staffs are experienced enough to manage the groups, the training activities and specifically the group savings and investment scheme. The staff being well acquainted with development projects, they could easily connect to the beneficiaries and understand their situation and use the best approach to communicate with them. The capacity of the staff built with prior experience was further strengthened by in-depth training and capacity building initiatives from the project.

The implementing partner Bikash Bangladesh has been operating in the region from 1997 having expertise in development project implementation and good networks in the project areas. Hence the project has been able to manage an effective and smooth implementation of activities since the initiation. Moreover, Bikash Bangladesh has strong and extensive networks and relationships with local tea factory owners, tea board and government officials, which could be leveraged to ensure smooth running of the trainings, workshops etc.

The project activities are very well designed and are being implemented timely and efficiently. Ample time has been given to develop a collective voice of the farmers and to make them work collectively and collaboratively. The staff dedicatedly worked to build strong sense of collectivism among the group members, hence a lot of time have been given to group formation, governance mechanism, mobilization and group operation. Now 1,500 smallholder farming households are working collectively and collaboratively to increase their resilience. They have a strong sense of unity that when asked to break their groups down, none of them would be convinced by any means. 100% group members were confident and could talk very logically about how dedicated they are to be in the group. These strong grassroot institutions show the signs of sustainability.

Cost effectiveness is high. The strong delivery mechanism kept all costs down. Training was conducted through ‘train the trainer’ approach, which is cost-effective and is able to cover large number of farmers. The group leaders and Barefoot Service Providers (BSPs) are usually trained and the STGs receive the trainings through them. When asked about the services of BSPs, the farmers were found very happy with the services rendered by them. All the trainers are local experts either the government officials or sometimes from the Tea Board Industry. This approach has resulted in increased efficiency and ownership of the government officials and industry experts. It has also been very cost-efficient than using external experts as trainers. They also could have opportunity to get a stronger understanding of the locality and the beneficiaries. As a result, the trainings seemed relevant and useful to the beneficiaries as well. “The best thing is this project did not work alone, rather it engaged all necessary stakeholders to their fullest capacity. The trainings were conducted by the relevant officers from relevant departments. Another major point is barefoot service provider approach, where I see people from them being capacitated as trainers. The project is successfully making them empowered and building leadership capability through this approach. I know some of them who already got other jobs (for e.g. in square) after they received trainings and built their capacities.” said Mr Siddique, Senior Farm Assistant, Bangladesh Tea Board, Panchagarh.

The PPS are yet to start collective operations like leaf trading, inputs supplies, etc. But in Baliadangi, the project beneficiaries are already receiving services for free of cost from different Government and Non- government organizations the calculated value of which is BDT 49,825. A detail list of collective and negotiated actions in Baliadangi Upazila is given below

Name of No. of Receiving Calculated SL. Description Group Participants Place value Wheat Seed (5 Kg), Fertilizer 1 Bongovita 5 DAE 650 30kg 2 Uttar paria 5 Power Thresher (30% Less) DAE 31000 3 Lohagora 1 Foot Sprayer 2 (30% Less) DAE 5000 4 Jotpara, chaol 9 AWD pipe DAE 450 Livestock 5 choutaki 120 Cattle vaccine (150 cattle) 7600 Office Jotpara, Livestock 6 70 Cattle vaccine (100 cattle) 5125 Banagaon Office Total 49825

Sapling distribution got delayed than planned schedule due to high sapling price. The price went almost double than what was budgeted for. But the project could efficiently handle the situation, kept close observation about the sapling market. Then finally made a long-term agreement after a lot of efficient negotiation with nursery owners. The credit solely goes to the wide networking and vast market knowledge of the staff and project coordinator under the supervision of the country director.

Trainings and networking with government officers opened a new door to increased income and social security for the members within the group South Goalpara Khudra Cha Chashi Samity. One of the poorest members of this group was [name redacted] who could not run the family well with the scanty income her husband would earn. She could never imagine of having BDT 1100 savings of her own as many times she and her family used to starve for food. She said crying “we were passing real hard days. We thought there is no way of getting out of poverty for us. We thought we were among the least fortunate of the world.” Her goats and chickens were dying and she could not afford to send her little son to school. Her yearly income was less than what they needed to survive properly.

Then she received trainings on effective group operation, Cattle Rearing, Beef Fattening, Fodder Production and Poultry Rearing. Besides this, Project Staff linked her with Upazila livestock office. After receiving training, she decided to rear cattle again. In January 2017, she bought cattle for BDT 25000 and after three months she sold this cattle for BDT 40000. Rearing cost was 3000 and net profit was BDT 12000. She spent this money for her children’s education purpose.

Moreover, she received trainings on tea cultivation technique and started preparing her land for tea cultivation. She received sapling and partial credit with which she bought inputs for tea cultivation. She wants to put all her efforts into tea cultivation now as this would give her security for the next 60 years. She has been elected as a barefoot service provider. she is now able to deliver trainings without any hesitation. She is now thinking of secured and profitable means of re-investing her savings and also plans to take loans from the group savings fund.

The project required the groups to save on their own a certain amount of money (BDT30,000) to be eligible to receive matching fund; such strategic disbursement of fund has proved to be a highly motivating factor for the groups to start, and more importantly sustain their savings mechanisms. The concept of this matching grant has been very successful as it provides a backup to credit needs for various purposes including an increase in investment capacities.

The group savings fund is currently much higher than that of the initial matching grant. This has helped reducing beneficiaries’ vulnerability to market or environmental shocks. This has efficiently increased the psychological and financial preparedness of the beneficiaries. The average amount of savings per group is BDT 36,076 and average savings of per individual is BDT 1,443. 60 PPS have bank accounts and the rest 10 PPS have some cash in hand. The following table summarizes the savings of the Beneficiaries (BDT) against the Matching Fund in 3 Upazilas.

Community Fund Sl. Name of Total Total Number of Total Own Total Group from Project no. Upazila group group member Savings (BDT) Fund (BDT) (BDT) 1 Tetulia 17 425 490,000 390,000 880,000 2 Sadar 18 450 640,000 420,000 1,060,000 3 Baliadangi 25 625 134,000 90,000 224,000 Total: 60 1,500 1,264,000 900,000 2,164,000

Effectiveness

Project is greatly effective in reaching the target output and has been performing most of the target activities timely. The designed activities towards all the outputs are going on track which denotes the good quality and appropriateness of implementation. It was planned for people with specific needs from the specific geographical location that faced agriculture challenges. Beneficiaries from Monga prone and seasonal famine areas Tetulia, Panchgarh Sadar and Baliadangi were chosen based on their poverty and vulnerability criteria. The project not only collaborated with other projects being implemented in the working area, it has also undertaken the strategies that were proved successful in earlier projects (like EqualiTea I and EqualiTea II)

The project has met its targeted number of STGs to engage with and form PPS. In the project so far, a total of 3000 STGs have been mobilized into 60 Primary Producer Societies (PPS) formed in the project area of Tetulia, Panchgarh Sadar and Baliadangi Upazila in Thakurgaon district. It was hard to convince the engagement of farmers with this project as they have been deceived many a time and also making profit from tea cultivation is a time-consuming process.

No. of No. of STGs By end of No. of STGs Women Group No. of STGs new to with existing March mobilized STGs Mobilized tea cultivation plantation mobilized Tetulia 850(425 HHs) 197 17 0 850 (425 HHs) Sadar 900(450 HHs) 166 18 0 900 (450 HHs) Baliadangi 1250(625 HHs) 75 25 0 1250 (625 HHs) Total 3000 (1500 HHs) 438 60 0 3000 (1500 HHs)

All of the 60 groups elected their 9-member governing body to operate the group; and selected 2 BSPs to receive technical training so as to serve their needs better. This group approach helps build strength, solidarity and cohesiveness among the members and in terms of community development, this approach has the highest success rate. It has paved the path towards reaching the first outcome where the farmer groups are united to negotiate better with local government and local tea companies/factories for better services and support.

A total of 120 Group leaders received training on effective group operation. 120 GLs have knowledge on effective group operation. 3000 STGs received training on this conducted by GLs. The STGs now have clear understanding and education about effective group operation.

A total of 120 Barefoot Service Providers received 03 module technical training on Tea Cultivation. 120 BSPs have knowledge on 03 module technical training on Tea Cultivation. From the beginning of the project, 3000 STGs received 03 module technical training on Tea Cultivation. All trainings were conducted by BSPs. The STGs now know the necessary information and developed skills on how to prepare land, how to nurture the saplings and finally how to plant them and take care till they start giving leaves.

A total of 120 Barefoot Service Provider received technical training on Income Generating Activities. 120 BSPs have knowledge on crop cultivation and livestock rearing. 3000 STGs received training on income generating activities. All trainings were conducted by BSPs. The STGs now have strong understanding and knowledge about alternative livelihood option. These knowledge dissemination activities on tea cultivation and other income generating activities is expected to contribute in reaching outcome 2 by increasing income of the HHs through tea cultivation and making them less vulnerable by changing their livelihood.

Livestock and poultry vaccination trainings have been highly effective for the female members of the groups as it provided them with an immediate source of income. In addition, the vaccination training had an immediate impact compared to other trainings which was well appreciated by the women during the FGDs. This activity has made it possible for them to rear their poultry very well. It has reduced the mortality rate and make the chickens suitable to give sufficient eggs or be sold in the market within 6-10 weeks.

3000 STGs (60 Groups) received training on modern agricultural practice. As a part of this activity, soil testing of farmers’ land has also been started and received much appreciation.

Soil Total # of # of Sl. Upazila sample report Group Beneficiary collected collected 1 Tetulia 4 20 20 0 2 Sadar 4 20 20 0 3 Baliadangi 2 10 10 0 Total 10 50 50 -

These have increased the farmers’ knowledge on modern agricultural practice. it has been helpful and they would benefit from its application on their fields. Such informative trainings have been very successful and effective that they already started demonstrating their results.

120 Group leaders received training on group savings and investment scheme and also 3000 STGs received training on group savings and investment scheme. After this training, 120 Group leaders and 3000 STGs have knowledge on the topics. 52 PPSs established financial relationship with banks and other FIs. They have opened bank accounts. The detail of savings status in all 3 Upazila is attached in Annex 5. As a result, all 60 functional groups have been doing meetings regularly every month and collecting savings regularly. There are no reported incidence of members failing or unwilling to deposit the monthly savings. it has helped them understand the benefit of working together. This ensures that the small tea growers are engaged in collective action. Savings is found to be an important motivational factor for the most members of the group during the FGDs. The farmers have not yet started investment.

Consultation meeting with prospective smallholder tea growers with Govt. and Private Stakeholders held. As a result, they have been introduced and linked with public service providers (extension officers). The effectiveness of such consultation workshops leads to meeting outcome 3. Linkage building regional workshops between smallholder farmers and local service providers held with the presence of respective district and Upazila govt. officers of three Upazilas and also different level stakeholders like BLFs, journalists, representative from each group. Thus, they are linked to public service providers to whom they can now access easily. The strongest sign of effectiveness was found in the networking with public institutions. Beneficiaries and government officials stated mutual benefit from the repeated engagements during trainings. Relationship with public and private service providers strengthened and many of the beneficiaries believed that without the help of project, they would not have been able to access the service providers.

An Association is formed in Tetulia Upazila and two more associations are in the process of formation and a combined regional association will be formed incorporating all three associations. These associations are expected to be established to act as a voice of all the STGs to help them get their rights fulfilled. A simple notion of the effectiveness of this 18 months’ work on collectivism is where we see the farmers are already benefiting from the project activities which was not possible or used to get delayed before the project came. A detail of such collective and negotiated actions has already been mentioned above.

The project provided 16,24,000 Sapling (BDT 79,57,600 @ 4.9/ Sapling) among 812 selected small tea growers based on their needs. The project also provided BDT 18,38,500 as partial credit among 812 selected small tea growers based on their need assessment. This credit support is helping to achieve increased technical and organizational capacity of the STGs to improve their livelihoods. The detail status of sapling and partial credit in all 3 Upazila is attached in Annex 6.

Tea sector research and tea policy paper preparation works are being conducted by Mr. Kawsar, consultant hired by TXUK for policy research. He already conducted two important KIIs with high officials and published articles on those interviews in 2 leading newspapers of the country. The two interviews were – one with the honorable commerce minister Mr Tofayel Ahmed and another one with a senior secretary Mr. Hetayet Ullah Al Mamun. In the interviews the two knowledgeable persons talked about their hope about the potential of small scale tea growing business in Bangladesh and how this can bring revolutionary change in the country’s economy by transforming the lives of poorest people of the country. The works on tea policy research paper is going on well while the effectiveness of this initiative is predicted to be highly valuable for the STGs.

Living in extreme poverty as well as suffering from malnutrition and food insecurity along with poor health and hygiene due to limited income, [name redacted] has gone through a lot of struggle and was dependent on agriculture and livestock. He had 7 cows and 2 goats. Total yearly income derived from agriculture and livestock was BDT 60,000 and BDT 30,000 respectively, in total BDT 90,000.

[Name redacted] is 57 years old. He is part of the JothPara – 1 group from Banagao Jothpara Village, Thakurgaon District. He has studied up to class 8. He has one son ad one daughter who are involved in private service and graduate study respectively.

He used to be a small farmer and as said earlier, his main income is derived from agriculture and livestock. The land that he used for agriculture production was not suitable for seasonal cultivation. “I did not get any money from it, so I could not live a reasonably good life. With such limited money, it was not sufficient to bear all expenses like-shopping, purchasing essential commodities and even bearing the educational expense for the children. So, I was in problem and was struggling a lot. This land is suitable only for tea cultivation”. The total land area under his possession is 165 decimals and he has utilized 60 decimals out of it for tea cultivation.

At this critical situation, he decided to join the EqualiTEA III Project implemented by Traidcraft Exchange and Bikash Bangladesh. “I talked with project Staff and what impressed me was that Tea is a long-term crop and it has a lifespan of 60 to 70 years. So, anybody can live his life out of its economy and also from proper livestock rearing. So, when I recognized this, I have put all my efforts into tea plantation. I am a Bare Foot Service Provider. I received 3 modules technical trainings on tea cultivation & 01 module training on effective group operation and received training on cattle rearing, beef fattening, fodder production and poultry rearing through improved method. I am the president of the standing committee of the group. Besides this, Project Staff linked me with the Upazila livestock office.”

In 2016, I bought two cows amounting to BDT 40,000 and after six months I sold this cows for BDT 70,000. Rearing cost was BDT 12,000 and thus the net profit was BDT 18,000 and I spent this money for family expense and my children’s education”.

This is a very inspiring story of [name redacted]. In near future, he will use 66 decimals of land for tea cultivation and plan to construct a permanent residential building for his accommodation.

[Name redacted] is proud on his achievements. He is very much excited and enthused tea farmer who has a careful strategy to cultivate tea and earn more money out of it. The most important aspects about his activities is that other members of the group also get encouraged by him as he shares his stories with other members in the group meetings to become better farmers, earn big income and provide daily necessities for their family members. He is very much thankful to the project and conveyed his gratitude to Traidcraft, Bikash and UKAID.

Sustainability

Sustainability of the project without outside support is an important aspect for ensuring project success. It lies at the core of any project where long lasting impressions are expected for beneficiaries from the funded interventions. The potential for sustainability of the project activities and their results seemed quite strong as the activities are fully owned and based upon STG needs and requirements.

60 farmer groups have been formed which have a total membership of 3000 beneficiaries. All the groups have functional and operational 9 membered executive committee; are already knowledgeable on group operations. As we visited around 10 groups during our visit, it seemed that all of them are well formed and may not require further operational support from the project by now. They clearly talked about the need and mutual benefit of organizing and working collaboratively. The collective power of the STGs have been enhanced through capacity building, mentoring and ensuring good governance. They already know how to nurture their capacities to access information and subsidies for the future. Hence, there is a strong likelihood that the STGs will continue to use PPS as they are already getting proven benefits in terms of collective actions, knowledge sharing, efficient services and advice etc.

In addition to building capacity, our approach achieves a multiplier effect by ensuring the transfer of knowledge and skills to large numbers and leaving behind a resource to help scale-up after the project ends. In order to ensure improvements and long term knowledge sharing and skill transfer, EqualiTea III has trained 120 Barefoot service providers to provide ongoing support and mentoring to smallholder farmers. With the support of the project, these technically skilled persons are developed enough to provide raining, services and at the same time earn money through community works such as vaccination of poultry. This will not change after the project leaves.

60 self-sufficient farmer groups and 1 already established association provides an inherent indication of financial and institutional independence and sustainability. The groups are already acting in the interests of the community members and therefore having full support which is expected to continue beyond the project. With the completion of 2 more Upazila and 1 regional associations and their work for each other’s’ interest, probability of the groups and associations to sustain will be much more enhanced.

EqualiTea III has focused its activities on strengthening the linkages of service providers by using them to provide the services to existing farmer groups. The input sellers of these areas now provide good quality inputs and agriculture advice to the EqualiTea farmers. This has created a win-win situation between farmers, and service providers. The convincing approach of mutual benefit of involvement with the project ensures that all groups have a stake in continuing to engage with each other even after the expiry of the project. From both the beneficiaries and service providers’ end, there has been strong assurance to continue the relations as they are mutually beneficial.

All the Government Officers interviewed were found committed to working with the project as they found it effective to reach a large a number of people in the easiest way. The beneficiaries during the FGDs said that that the government officials designated to the project areas did not visit them ever before this project. After the initial introduction facilitated by the project, it became easier for the government officials to do their jobs more effectively. The group members also mentioned that previously they had no access to any government offices or they did not have any courage to talk to any officer; but now after the project introduced them to the Upazila Livestock Officer and Upazila Agriculture Officer, they are welcomed at the government offices whenever they go for any assistance from them. They also have the mobile number of the officers and can ask for any help from them. “I visited all the 17 groups in the Upazila. All the farmers know me very well. They can come to me anytime for any kind of assistance without hesitation, which they would never do before. I can also access a large number of people if I visit farmers in groups. These readily available groups have been proven as a very good reaching point for us as we do not have sufficient officers to reach out to a lot of people from our government department. I think almost all the farmers of EqualiTEA know me, and have access to my office. They have my cell number and talk easily for solving their problems.” Mr Alam, Upazila Agriculture officer in Tetulia Upazila was saying as we asked him about the perceived benefit he had sought from involving with this project. According to him, the project’s best approach was to take them to the farmers and introduce the farmers with these officers to build a good contact with them. He thinks such relationship is going to last as long as the officers are here and even after that, if a new officer gets appointed, the farmers are already self-confident enough and have known the ways to reach out the officers by themselves. They will leverage their collective power which no new officer would be able to deny or ignore. This confidence and relationship are something the project would not be able to take away at the time of expiry. From both end, this commitment was visible which improves the sustainability aspect to a great extent.

The capacity of groups and association on lobbying and advocacy is being built as part of the project activities. This is helping the farmer groups and the association to lobby government bodies for different services from government scheme. A list of successful receptions of some services were discussed in the previous sections. This indicates the project is already showing its success in developing the networking and lobbying/advocacy skills of beneficiary groups After the successful establishment of regional association it is expected to help the group members and associations to lobby government bodies for the proper implementation of existing policies and to voice farmers’ concerns and needs to influence future policy formulation. This is crucial to the sustainability of the project impact.

The project has selected beneficiaries based on their needs and interest to convert their fallow or less productive land to tea cultivation. Though this needed much effort to convince these people to understand the concept as they have been deceived many a time in the past by many NGOs. However, the project encouraged beneficiaries to diversify their income through alternative livelihood options in the local area. Since a lot of the work is happening through groups, there is also encouragement among other farmers to work together to continue tea cultivation. The existing members, by seeing the success of our previous project in this area, are also convinced that once planted with tea bushes, their land will be a resource that will be available for the next 50 years (the life of a tea bush).

Matching fund and savings deposit creating opportunities for utilization against Income Generating Activities, both individual and joint, is an effective strategy for socioeconomic sustainability. However, the match fund was provided after a savings of BDT 30,000 with own fund from the group. The detail summary of Upazila wise savings and matching grant is attached in Annex 5. This also has been a motivation for the members to be together and not leave the group activities as their money is involved in here.

Impact

The extensive impact of the project is yet to be seen. But the most advantageous here is the fact that in traditional tea cultivation practice, result can be seen after 4-5 years whereas in Panchgarh, the soil is so suitable that the effect can be seen within 2 years of time span. As a result, there has been no visible or real profit increase till now though more than 50% farmers have planted the saplings and received some income. Nevertheless, many have earned through engaging in alternative income generating activities. Beneficiaries have started to diversify their income sources through project activities utilizing a greater integrated farming system. Along with agriculture, many of them have adopted livestock rearing as additional livelihood options. Poultry and goat rearing have been found to be the most popular activities for women. This is bringing instant income for a lot of them. Apart from livestock and agriculture, some people have been found to be investing in small multipurpose shops, handicrafts, mobile accessories business etc. The socioeconomic condition of the group members is improving.

The group savings fund has an impact both as a safety measure and collective action. The plan is to ensure the beneficiaries have an emergency fund, which they can use instead of informal loans or micro-financing loans – which have higher interest rates and rigid payback terms. With group savings, all beneficiaries are now protected against these vulnerabilities since each member has an option of taking small loans, when required. The impact of this easily accessible loan and readily available investment fund is expected to be very noteworthy. The project staff have planned to devote next few months on developing investment committee for each group, train on their operation and works and helping the beneficiaries to access loans and make effective investment.

In 2000, Bangladesh Tea Board did soil test and recommended the land as tea growing region in the extreme north of Bangladesh. The target location of the project beneficiaries was chosen based on this suitability of land for tea growing. At the same time, the project took an initiative to do specific soil testing for the producers’ land to know the required amount of fertilizer and other inputs for cultivating their land. According to field surveys, the beneficiaries have already started testing their soil to determine the amount and types of fertilizer required for their soil and crop so that they can apply fertilizer in the right quantity. This is going to help them use the required amount of fertilizer without compromising the production yield which eventually will lead to the reduction of their production cost. some of them also received vermicomposting demonstration. Such practices undoubtedly have very positive impact on the conservation of environment.

Trainings have already started demonstrating positive impact as the farmers are applying the learning relevant to their agricultural practices. Specifically, the trainings on tea cultivation has been very effective and has a long-lasting impact which has enabled the STGs (who already received saplings) to prepare their land, plant saplings and take regular care of those. The impact of such training is likely to last and even get stronger as the beneficiaries proceed on with the stages of tea cultivation. Training on poultry rearing and vaccination is also expected to be long lasting.

The project activities have enabled the beneficiaries to raise their collective voice and use their social capital to address common challenges. Groups have developed the habit of meeting regularly and discussing individual issues. Substantial impact can be seen in the communication skills of beneficiaries with outsiders. They now keep good contact with public service providers, input sellers and tea board officials and do not hesitate to ask for their help when necessary. The level of confidence among the specially among the women beneficiaries is reflected in their ability to communicate clearly. This is especially significant for women because generally they are not used to maintain a social circle outside their own family, neither are they used to have professional interactions.

In the design of the project, women were given special focus. The project took an approach to work with both husband and wife from one household. Among the 1500 HH beneficiaries, 438 are female headed groups. Many women are holding leadership position by rotation in the group committee. Some have been developed as the Barefoot Service Providers (BFSP). Among the 120 BFSP, 27 are women. The detail list of Barefoot service providers in 3 Upazilas is given in the Annex 4. From the field visit, it was found that the women members now feel empowered both socially and financially and their self-confidence has gone up after involving with the project activities. When asked about them feeling overburdened due to getting engaged in both household work and economic activities outside the home, all the women showed the same consensus that they do not mind working more as long as their hard work pays off, rather they are more motivated as they feel independent and valued. Their social acceptance has also gone up. Taking a household approach, where both husband and wife are present in the same group, proved to be a very effective strategy to include both of them to understand each and other and act as a compliment for each other in all kind of activities.

The strongest impact has been generated in the linkages with government officials with improved relationships. The beneficiaries have been capacitated to contact the government officers directly for advice and some even go to input retailers to purchase their own inputs for their homestead gardening activities promoted by the project. These private/business service providers expect a positive impact in the future years through increasing growth of their customer base. The government officials also appreciated their involvement in the design and execution of project activities especially trainings

In many cases, it was reported by the beneficiaries that neighbors of EqualiTea group members have shown interest in their activity and in some areas, stated interest to join in the groups. But this is discouraged as the project do not have any discretion for this now. But a positive energy has been found among the community members, even when we were conducting our FGDs, a number of people from outside were very enthusiastic to know what is being discussed for that day.

Both Traidcraft and Bikash Bangladesh have prior experience in group mobilization strategy implemented during EqualiTea I and EqualiTea II projects. As a result, it is recommended and is very possible for them to measure the right impacts for self-evaluation as well as promoting their success.

Lessons and Recommendation

➢ The farmers who have been given the saplings and partial credit, need to be kept under close eyes to ensure the best use of the partial credit. These should only be used for buying inputs like fertilizer. Pesticides etc. for tea cultivation rather than for their own consumption.

➢ 2 Upazila Associations and 1 regional association are yet to be formed. Project team should complete this as soon as possible as they now need to devote more time in the nurturing of these associations. These should be capacitated well to perform independently with full functional, financial and technical capacity of their own. It is crucial to ensure they have clarity on their purpose and they reach-out to their farmer members to begin to build the relationship & understand their needs. Moreover, lobbying with Bangladesh tea board and negotiating with tea factories would be a vital role that the associations need to be capable of playing.

➢ Group members and specially the group leaders and leaders of associations need to be specialized in negotiating with tea factories to ensure proper pricing of their leaves. The groups need to unite together to negotiate for reducing percentage deduction from their leaves. Also, a concrete documentation method for recording these negotiated actions and their values is necessary to maintain regularly to assess the project’s success during final evaluation.

➢ Data on producers’ income change could not analyzed at this stage as tea cultivation is a lengthy process and most of the farmers have not yet started getting leaves. So, it is recommended to collect accurate information on the income change of the farmers preferably with a certain interval, to analyze and get a clear picture during final evaluation. It would be better to disaggregate the picture of increases in tea income versus overall income of STGs through alternate sources of income.

➢ A feedback mechanism is to be maintained regularly especially with the grassroots level stakeholders in order to make the implementation strategy more effective, sustainable and flexible.

➢ More time and efforts should be given for nurturing the groups as they are new to tea cultivation. Since tea cultivation is a long-term process, the PPS need to be kept motivated to wait for more 6 month or a year in some cases to see the benefits. This time is very crucial for the project staff to extend their highest support and effort in strengthening the groups.

➢ It was found that Tea board has provision for distributing some saplings of BT variety with subsidy (BDT 1 subsidy for per sapling) and some shallow pumps for free of cost. 60 of our farmers have been selected who will receive these services. This is a very good initiative which the Association leaders with support from project team may lobby for and try to make it faster to ensure that these advantages reach our farmers in real before the project leaves.

➢ A lot of new tea factories were found to be being established recently. At the same time, many new small farmers are getting involved with tea cultivation. In this case, the project has high potential for involving the factory owners form their CSR perspective.

➢ Factories which are established in Panchgarh area, are called Bought Leaf Factory (BLF). For establishing BLF in Panchgarh area, permission from BTB is a must. For traditional tea, no such type of permission is required from BTB. It is a concern that the Tea Board is giving license to a lot of new factories. But this may reduce the bargain power of the tea growers. In this case, it is recommended to initiate a talk with the tea board to leverage on this issue where the tea factories will go for contractual agreements with the farmers to buy back their leaves. For this they will be engaged in the initial capital investment as the tea growers are small and marginal farmers with very less or no assets and tea cultivation requires a good amount of initial investment. Thus, the factory owners will have a handsome amount of investment preferably in sharing the sapling costs which will also keep them bound to buy from those STGs. The farmers also need to agree to provide good quality leaves which can be ensured with proper pricing of leaves by the factory owners. This would be a way for both parties to flourish sustainably.

➢ Demonstrations are very popular and effective. Therefore, number of such events should be enhanced with the help from government service providers and may be by the engagement with development organizations as well.

➢ The groups can be taught to keep a monthly newspaper named KrishiKatha from the group to get regular new updates about modern agriculture practice.

➢ Refresher trainings for service providers on effective service delivery is required as many officers have been changed in las 2 years. It is required to give them such trainings for their capacity building before the project leaves.

➢ The groups have not yet started investing. A committee for loan processing and investment analysis need to be formed within a short time as many groups have already reached a handful amount of savings and also received matching grant. They need to start disbursing loans and making investments with no delay.

➢ While the impact on the farmers who have taken up tea cultivation under the project would be very highly positive in the country, they do not have a support system through Government and Bangladesh Tea Board, nor is the involvement of the formal banking system to meet their credit requirements. While more such marginal farmers are already attracted to tea cultivation through the demonstration effect of the project, lack of resources (initial investment as well as working capital requirements) is a barrier for them. For any kind of agricultural loan, farmers have to keep their original deeds of land as mortgage against the loan. The farmers of North Bengal do not have this opportunity as original copies of their land deed are lying with Jolpaiguri district in India since 1947. So, taking agricultural loan from any schedule bank is impossible for them without the original deed. So, initiatives should be taken to make the condition easy for them by Government or Tea Board can act as a grantor against every bank loan for tea cultivation. The project may enhance the involvement of the associations to lobby with BTB and local development organizations to help in this regard to open the doors for the interested new farmers to come in the business.

Annex 1: Questionnaire of FGD Group Evaluation Format Name of the Group : ID :

Village : Union : Upazila : District : Total Member : Date of Formation :

Broad Criteria Do you have a constitution? Are the group members respectful to the leader and the constitution? Good Do you hold election for leadership? Governance Does the group maintain proper documentation? Is the group united and resolve any issues/ makes decisions collectively?

Does the group hold monthly meeting regularly? Are all the members present in all monthly meetings? Have you ever done anything or taken any initiative collectively? Are you able to negotiate better with local government and local tea companies/factories for better services and support now? Have you ever negotiated unitedly to gain anything and become successful? Do you perceive benefits from group membership? How? Effective group Do you have good linkages with the BSP and PSP? operation Are you satisfied with the services/support provided by barefoot service providers? How are the leaders' relationship with the others in the society? Does your group have any future plan together? How is your relationship with the associations? Do you know the members or leaders of associations? Is association essential for getting better support or benefit from different stakeholder (BLFs, PSP, Input Supplier etc)?

Do you know about the project? What’s the name, who are the donors and implementers etc.? Project Are you aware about opportunities and problems in tea production? participation and Are you aware about the challenges we are facing? effectiveness Can you tell us the name of trainings you have received so far? Are the trainings useful? How? Has the project or the trainings helped in growing your self-confidence? Do you get engaged in the group activities? How?

Do you think saving is needed for you or for the group? How? How often do you save and how much? What is the size of your savings? Have you made any investment so far? How and where? Savings and What is the outcome/ profit that you made through this investment? investment Who does the bank transaction? Who does the documentation? How? How do you pay back the loan? How does the group do the collection activity? How much fund is available in the safety fund? How is it used?

What is the average yield (in kg) of tea (before processing) per acre? How much income has increased since you started tea cultivation under the tea project? Do you think there is an improvement in your wellbeing after involving with the project? What proportion of your income is earned from tea cultivation? How much of your land is being cultivated using improved practices learned Project Outcome from this project? Are you getting assistance from agricultural services? How much of your yield per acre of existing crops increased using improved agricultural techniques? Do you see benefits from improved agriculture practices? (soil testing, organic fertilizers, efficient irrigation etc.) Have you adopted any new income-generating activity since you got involved with the project? What and how much you are earning from that?

How many female members are in the group? Are women holding president/ secretary or both positions in the group? Do the same women continue to hold these positions or do they rotate? Do you think mixed groups (male and female) are best for working? Gender and What impact does being a president or secretary have on a woman’s self- Women confidence? Empowerment What impact does having a woman in these positions have on the self- confidence of other women in the group? How men feel about having women in these positions? – Is there a risk it may provoke a backlash in other areas of life? Do you (women) feel overburdened as you have to play role in the economic activities as well as in the household works?

Annex 2: Highlights from FGDs

- Lohakachi Khudra Cha Chashi Samity

o Some group members feel that their savings are the single best thing about being involved in the project. They currently have 30,085 BDT in savings, did not receive any grant yet. They have their own group bank account. Each of them save BDT 100/120 per month. o They received trainings on Group formation, Committee formation, Agriculture practice, savings and loans etc. These trainings have been provided by government officers, some by the project staff or barefoot service providers. o The group collectively made a signboard, seal and also opened a bank account. They have learned a sense of togetherness from being united in this group. o They still do not have very good or strong connection with the PSPs and BSPs as they have not approached them yet for any service. But they plan to start such communication soon. o The group members plan to spend their extra earnings on better food for their children, family expenses, cultivation costs and their children’s education. The husbands of the female members are very happy with their wives’ equal participation in the group. o The secretary is a woman and her family is supporting her and gives her encouragement which she could not imagine before. o They have not yet cultivated tea but they are applying their learnings from agriculture training. They are using natural remedy of insects. Thus, they reduced their insecticide cost.

- Kamarpara Khudra Cha Chashi Samity

o Rural people of our country are far from accessing basic services of government as the number of people are higher than the number of service providers and allocated services. The project came as a blessing for the group. The members materialized the idea on which they used to pay no attention earlier. Hence their poultry were dying at a rate of 50-90% in some cases. o They received 7 modules of trainings on tea cultivation, group operating, poultry and cattle rearing and agriculture practices. They explained that if they were not in the group they wouldn’t get these. It has been the most important benefit of their involvement in the project. o They explained that others want to know the new things that they have learnt. Neighboring farmers come to attend their training and also come to them to ask for advice and most of the time they try to share the information with them. o They have a very close relationship with the government officers now; previously they didn’t know them at all. The president has all their mobile numbers. They explained that from communication with the government officers, they have learnt a lot. o Through collective and negotiated actions, they try to communicate with tea factory owners, government, and private service providers for any required services/rights that they could not imagine before. They have been invited by the local tea factory owner during its yearly opening ceremony. They received maize and wheat seeds through negotiated action from the government office. o They want to register their group and grow as an institution. o 10% of them have started tea cultivation and expecting an average yield of 8000 kg leaves per acre. o All the members of the group are happy with the benefit. They feel they can do something for themselves now. Specially the women feel self-confident more than before.

- Kodomtali Khudro Cha Chashi Samity

o When asked about the main benefits of group membership, some members described that savings and trainings or knowledge gathering were most useful benefit for them. o Most members are present in all monthly meetings. They now negotiate with government officers and received demonstration of wheat and maize through negotiation. They also received seed and fertilizer for preparing these demo plots. o They had a lot of fallow land where now they have planned to cultivate tea. They prepared their land after receiving trainings on tea cultivation. The land where last year nothing was cultivated is now brought under use and they dream of making a good future out of it. o Now they have good practice for solving problems. They have good communication. The group president explained that this will continue for them beyond the life of the project. o Previously they had no communication with the government officers. Now they communicate a lot. They phone the officers for any kind of advice they need. o They have good relationship with the village leader. o In future, they plan to focus more on cattle rearing for increasing their earnings. o They have a saving amount of BDT 12,400. They have not yet started any investment. o They have seen alternative sources of earning. Some are making profit by poultry rearing and cattle rearing. o Some group members have received 2000 saplings each and started planting. Some have received partial credit of BDT 2500 which they are suing for buying other required inputs for agriculture production and tea cultivation.

- Choutaki 2 Khudra Cha Chashi Samity

o There are 29 HHs in this group. 22 are male headed and 7 are female headed. Basically, all these families are male headed as the nature of the country’s social system, but those 7 HHs are registered in the group by the names of their female partners. o They have attended Group formation meeting, need assessment meeting, Technical training on tea cultivation techniques, groups savings and investment mechanism, livestock rearing etc. o The group described how previously they used to use a lot of fertilizer and now they use less and in balanced amount after knowing about the right dosage and effective ways of cultivation. o They received vaccines from government livestock office. Poultry rearing was never a profitable venture since a huge number of poultry died due to diseases. But now it has become profitable as the mortality rate went down drastically after getting their poultries vaccinated. o Most of them are from Hindu community and they think religion has not been any barrier for them to participate and work together in the group spontaneously. o They have reduced their costs of cattle feed after they received training on livestock rearing. But they are now getting more milk and taking better care of their cattle and using beef fattening techniques successfully. o They maintain a good relationship with the chairman of the locality and get assistance and support from him now. o They plan to sell their leaves together to get better price through negotiation. They plan to demand less reduction in weight by the factory owners so that they can earn better. At the same time, they have decided to provide good quality tea leaves to factories so that they can have a long term mutually beneficial relationship with them. o They have been visited by the Agriculture officer and livestock officer and has built good rapport with them by now.

- Moddho Charol – 1 Khudro Cha Chashi Samity

o There are 26 HHs in this group. They formed this group and started operation from February 2016. By now they have started seeing better livelihood options by the help of the project. o They received trainings on tea cultivation, livestock rearing, group operation, GSIS and agriculture practice etc. o They save BDT 100 per month and has a total saving amount of BDT 15,500 in excel. o The women members explained that their husbands are very happy with their wives’ involvement in the group. o The group members’ self-confidence has increased since they got involved with the project. They now communicate well with others. The neighboring people of the society sometimes come to them or call them up for advice on some social issues. o They plan to pay off their loans to MFIs soon. They want their own fund to grow big and want to help other members through lending. o They know the leaders of association and know about the work of it. But the association is yet to be form in a formal way. o Now they have developed good communication skill. The group president explained that this will continue for them beyond the life of the project. o They believe tea cultivation can change their lives and give them security for a long time even for their next generation.

- Grampara Khudro Cha Chasji Samity

o They are 50 members in the group, that is 25 households. 21 of them are male registered and rest 4 are female registered. o They have average grasp on group operation and documentation. They try to maintain proper rules and follow guidelines. o They have established good connection with nearby tea factory Green Field which is in the process of opening. o They have good communication with agriculture officer because of the project. They received 2 demonstrations from union council. One on mustard and other on maize. They received Boro Rice seeds from government office which they could not access previously before the project came and got them introduced with the government officers. o They want to grow their savings to face future uncertainty. They want to create an NGO to alleviate poverty from their village. Currently they have a savings on BDT 30,000. Once they receive the match fund, they plan to buy 2 cows. o They are well acquainted with the project name, its modality of work the donors and implementing agencies. o They were visited by an animal surgeon to see their cattle. They received support and vaccination training from them. Basically, Upazila livestock offices lacks human resource to provide door to door services for village. To avail the services in-house is costly as service providers take much to serve in-house. The group could get his service because of being united and got to know about disease management. o They used to face a lot of problem previously. Now they started tea cultivation. At the same time, Green Field Tea Factory is opening. Si they think their problems will be solved now. o They hope 25-50% of their earnings will be earned form tea leaves selling once they start plucking. They expect 9000 kg of leaver from per acre land which can be sold to bring a good earning for them soon.

- Choutaki 1 Khudro Cha Chashi Samity

o There were no tea factories in this area. But recently around 7-8 new factories are opening here. The group members now hope to change their lives through tea cultivation o They started savings for 5 months. o They have a 9-member committee which they elected through voting by raising hands. 3 committee members are female. o Their cashier and secretary can maintain the documentation very well. o The female members talked a bit less than the male ones. o They received livestock training from BFSP who received this training from Upazila Livestock Office. They also received agriculture training in the same process. the Upazila livestock officer and Agriculture officer also visited them. o They got a campaign on vaccination for the first time. The camp was very near to their village. They did never get such service before as they live in a very remote village. o They have already opened a bank account. They have saved BDT 7500 so far in 5 months. They want to grow their savings fast so that they can receive the matching grant early. o The group members think that the knowledge on tea cultivation hat they received is the most important benefit from this project. They also feel that being united gives them power to get their rights approved. They can now talk collectively to negotiate better. o They want to work collectively more in future. They plan to pluck leaves together, so that plucking becomes easier and faster. They also plan to sell their leaves together, take the leaves in one van to the factory so that their transport cost is low. o Some of them said that the strength and support and above all the courage they get from the project is the most important benefit of being involved with this project. They demand more such support in future till they get stabled. o 90% of them are involved in cattle rearing and poultry farming. This business was not beneficial before as the cows and chickens used to die out of a lot of diseases. But when the livestock officer came and diagnosed their cows, they could save their lives easily. He also talked about various diseases and how to treat those. Now the mortality rate has gone down tremendously. o They want to stay in group and stay united even after the expiry of the project because this is for their own benefit. o They are doing rice and potato as well using improved agriculture techniques that they learned from the trainings provided by the project.

- West Tokapara Khudra Cha Chashi Samity

o The group members are very vocal and enthusiastic. o They have savings of BDT 31,800 by now. Cashier does all the transactions with bank. He deposits the savings collected on each monthly meeting. They maintain a passbook for each member to record their savings amount. o Previously they had no knowledge on tea cultivation. But through the 3 module trainings on tea cultivation, they got to know about how to sow the saplings, how to take care of the saplings before plantation, how to fertilize them and irrigate them well. The 2 BSPs provided trainings on this which they learned from Panchgarh Muktijuddha Complex, where an extensive training was conducted by the tea board officer. o They established good contact with the tea board officer and has his Mobile number. They contact him whenever they need any advice or assistance. o They want to spend more on tea cultivation. After receiving sapling and partial credit, they added some more investment with it because this would a long-term business opportunity for them. They expect to earn good from this business. o Some of the members received seeds of lentil from government office which was never accessible for them before. They used to live in darkness. No officers would reach them or they would not gather courage to go to anyone. This has changed now. o They are already earning extra money through poultry rearing, the women farmers could increase the number of chickens and goats which previously were attached by diseases and used to die. o Some of them received sapling and started plantation already. They are waiting for rain to finish the plantation. In the meantime, they keep the saplings in shaded area and give water on it to grow new leaves in it. o People who received sapling also received partial credit of BDT 2000 as well which has come to a lot of help for them to start the tea cultivation. o In future, they want to grow savings, buy land and make a room for doing meetings and discussions. All these they plan to do on their own. They believe that they can do so if they get the courage, knowledge, and support from the project just like they have been receiving till now.

- Narayangoch 2 Khudro Cha Chashi Samity

o There are 24 households in this group. They want to stand as self-sufficient. They dream to establish it as an institution and get it registered. o The group is very organized, have been taught about group operation and management very well. They have collective prepared a shade, seating mat, arrange table chair for conducting important meetings when external people visit them. o The group members think that it is a very good approach to include both husband and wife in the same group. It has increased their cooperative sense. They can learn together and work together. Also, they support each other in everything. o They received training on livestock rearing which has been proved very beneficial for them. They got to know about vaccinating and now the mortality rate has gone down. Previously 80% poultry used to die due to diseases which now has gone down to 10%. But currently they are facing a new problem which is the attack of dogs on their poultry. They asked the project people to think about this and give them advice on how to get rid of this problem. o They have very good knowledge on the project, its activities, donors and implementers. o Many neighboring farmers are interested in joining their group but they only help them with advice as they know that the project can’t take more members in one group. They understand that taking more members would decrease the efficiency of group operation. o They know about association but it has not yet been formed formally. o They have savings amount of BDT 37,000. They plan to grow more savings soon. o The group members think that guide books for each topic discussed in meetings can be very beneficial to retain their knowledge. The educated people can often refresh the knowledge and share with others for proper advice. o Everyone in the group do not have the same receiving capacity. As a result, they think refresher training is required for the weak members of the group on all the technical topics.

- Nitoldoba 2 Khudro Cha Chashi Samity

o The group members here seemed a bit backward compared to the performance of other groups. They got united and started this group because they want to be involved in tea cultivation. Some of them sued to work as labors in large tea estates. But after involving with the project, they can now have their own tea gardens. o They think working together, solving their own problems together by their own, taking initiatives collectively are the major benefits of being in the group. o They have started savings and have plans to buy cows from their group after saving enough money and receiving matching grant from the project. o They have good connection with the Upazila agriculture officer who gave them training on agriculture method. Some members form the group have his phone number, but they still have not called him for any service till now. o They have not yet done soil testing of their soil. But the agriculture officer came and visited their land and talked about proper dosages of fertilizer. o Their cattle used to get attacked by worms, which is now solved after they received training on cattle rearing and vaccinating. o They plan to pluck leaves in 6 months. After that they will be able to earn money regularly as tea leaves can be plucked every 40-45 days. So, they plan to change their lives through engaging in the activities of this project.

Annex 3: Highlights from Key Informant Interviews

- “I visited all the 17 groups in the Tetulia Upazila. All the farmers know me very well. They can come to me anytime for any kind of assistance without hesitation, which they would never do before. I can also access a large number of people if I visit farmers in groups. These readily available groups have been proven as a very good reaching point for us as we do not have sufficient officers to reach out to a lot of people from our government department. I think almost all the farmers of EqualiTEA know me, and have access to my office. They have my cell number and talk easily for solving their problems.” Mr Alam, Upazila Agriculture officer in Tetulia Upazila was saying as we asked him about the perceived benefit he had sought from involving with this project. According to him, the project’s best approach was to take them to the farmers and introduce the farmers with these officers to build a good contact with them. He thinks such relationship is going to last as long as the officers are here and even after that, if a new officer gets appointed, the farmers are already self-confident enough and have known the ways to reach out the officers by themselves. They will leverage their collective power which no new officer would be able to deny or ignore. He suggested the project now should arrange some demonstrations for farmers to make them impact more visible. He also suggested that the groups can be taught to keep a monthly newspaper named KrishiKatha from the group to get a lot of new updates about modern agriculture practice. He also suggested to arrange refresher trainings for them on service delivery by external experts since he received the first one and got benefitted from this. Now that many officers have been changed, it is required to give them such trainings for their capacity building before the project leaves.

- “This area is very potential for tea cultivation. But the small farmers need a push as tea cultivation needs a lot of technical knowledge and a quite large amount of investment in the initial stage. So, focusing on this sector in such a modality has been the most important beneficial factor of this project which convinced me to become involved with this project. The village people are usually hesitant to reach out to government offices. But when this project took the initiative to get me introduced with them and I conducted the first trainings as well, it brought a revolutionary change among the poor villagers. I now receive a minimum of 3-6 calls per day from different farmers and minimum 2-3 farmers visit my office to meet me for their problems. “saying Dr Matin, Upazila Agriculture Officer, Panchgarh.

- “Farmers now use organic matter (less chemical fertilizer). It is reducing their production cost. they are encouraged in tea cultivation and makes 8-10 calls to me each day. I also feel happy to help them solve their problems when they refer to their involvement with the project. The best thing is this project did not work alone, rather it engaged all necessary stakeholders to their fullest capacity. The trainings were conducted by the relevant officers from relevant departments. Another major point is barefoot service provider approach, where I see people from them are being capacitated as trainers. The project is successfully making them empowered and building leadership capability through this approach. I know some of them who already got other jobs (for e.g. in square) after they received trainings and built their capacities.” said Mr Siddique, Senior Farm Assistant, Bangladesh Tea Board, Panchgarh. He also appreciated the project’s easy delivery mechanism where local Bangla language has been given preference. He suggested to promote BT variety as this will reduce insect attack. The current variety is TV 23, 25, 26 which are thick, as a result farmers use knives to pluck leaves which is bad for the lifecycle of the bushes. Another important recommendation from his was promoting and branding Panchgarh tea along with BTRI and Tea Board. He also recommended that the project can work with the new factories where they would encourage them to go for contracts with farmers with a share of investment in their tea cultivation and gardening. As result, the factory owner would be risk-free from not falling out of leaves and the farmers would also be risk-free from falling out of buyers. The Tea Board will also help is this which it is already practicing by not issuing license for those factories which do not invest in contract farmers’ gardens. This would be a way for both parties to flourish sustainably. The project should hence, take initiative to work in establishing the policy issues related to branding Panchgarh Tea and licensing tea factories through its policy and research paper works.

- “The small farmers here are very poor. Some of them have land but those were fallow. The project did very well when it brought those fallow lands under tea cultivation by giving the farmers proper technical know-how and saplings as initial investment. “said Mr Moinul Islam, Project Engineer, Bangladesh Tea Board, he attended some training events organized by the project and found it very effective. He thinks training the farmers on tea cultivation and providing them saplings are the major important activities. He suggested that the project can help tea board to register the tea farmers and get ID cards for them. The farmers are usually hesitant to provide the necessary papers for registration in BTB, but as the project farmers have good faith in the project staff, he requests them to help them bring the farmers’ trust and make them understand the necessity of getting registered.

- “I provided training to the Barefoot service providers on livestock and poultry rearing and disease management in Baliadangi. I discussed about a technical detail of livestock rearing. The people here are now very much enthusiastic in livestock farming as an additional source of income. My farmers are very thankful to me as they always say that their cows now do not die only because of all the good advice they received from me. I feel proud of being able to help them. “said Mr Dr Azad, Livestock Officer Baliadangi. He also led a vaccination camp where he vaccinated more than 300 cows and prescribed the owners about the diseases of their cows.

- “My customer base is increasing each day. Many of the project farmers are my permanent customers now. I sell pesticides for Lalmakor, mosquito, Plant Growth Regulator etc which are the major diseases of tea. I sometimes visit gardens of your project farmers as they invite me to. Before the project came, my customers used to come but such an interactive relationship with my customers could only be built by the help of such a wonderful project. I think, even after the project leaves, these people will keep such good interaction with me if I can provide them with good services that is good quality inputs and advice.” Md Rahman, a pesticide business person in Sadar Upazila, said these when he was asked about the project and its activities.

- “I started with 80,000 saplings production per year, whereas currently I grow and sell 8,00,000 saplings per year. I have provided 12,00,000 saplings to Traidcraft and Bikash for this EqualiTea program intervention till the beginning. Panchgarh tea has a great potential to thrive in the country’s market. But farmers need to use less pesticide and ensure natural cultivation.” Says Mr Islam when he was asked about the growth of his business and as well as the growth and potential of small scale tea growing in Panchgarh.

Annex 4: List of Barefoot Service Providers

Removed for the purposes of data protection. Please contact Traidcraft head office in the UK for further information on this.

Annex 5: Detail list of Savings and Investment

Removed for the purposes of data protection. Please contact Traidcraft head office in the UK for further information on this.

Annex 6: Detail List of sapling and Partial Credit Distribution

Removed for the purposes of data protection. Please contact Traidcraft head office in the UK for further information on this.

Annex 7:

Article on Small Tea Growing in North based on Interview with Commerce Minister

Article on the success of Small Tea Growing based on Interview with Senior Secretary