Study Report on Selection and Analysis of Value Chains (Final) For North East Region January 06, 2014 USAID’s Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) Component 4: Improve and diversified livelihoods that are environmentally sustainable and resilient to Climate Change Winrock International Acknowledgment This report is produced by Innovision Consulting Private Limited for review by the Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project, the lead implementer of which is Winrock International. The report is done under purchase order number CREL-INNO-005. The views expressed in the report are of Innovision and its consultants and not necessarily of CREL, Winrock International or USAID. Innovision Consulting Private Limited would like to thank USAID and Winrock-CREL project for providing us the opportunity to undertake the study. We would like to acknowledge the support provided by Mr. Darrell Deppert, Chief of Party, CREL, especially for his valuable advice and suggestions at the inception phase of the study. We are also very thankful to Mr. Mahmud Hossain, Livelihood Manager, CREL and his team for their valuable guidelines on the design and implementation of the study and also for their relentless supports throughout the study. Thanks to Mr. Abul Hossain and Mr. P.K. Pasha for their support. We are very grateful to the regional coordinators, Mr. Sheikh Md. Ziaul Huque of Khulna, Mr. Mazharul Islam Zahangir of Srimangal, Mr. Narayan Chandra Das of Chittagong and Mr. Md. Safiqur Rahman of Cox‟s Bazar, for their constant and wholehearted cooperation throughout the study period. We are very thankful to the livelihood officers of the four regions of CREL project for their valuable suggestions in the planning, coordination and strong presence in the field investigation. Otherwise it would have been difficult to conduct the study smoothly. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions and efforts of all the market development officers and livelihood facilitators of the four regions. We graciously thank the overall cooperation of the Management of CREL, Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS), Community Development Center (CODEC) and Nature Conservation Management (NACOM). We thank all the government officials (Forest department, Agriculture department, Fishery department, Livestock department, Department for Youth Development ) for their precious time. Lastly, we would also like to thank all the respondents who gave their valuable time to the research team to get area specific information that helped shape the report. i Abbreviations Acronym Abbreviation AED Agriculture Extension Department BADC Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation BARI Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BDT Bangladeshi Taka BFRI Bangladesh Forest Research Institute BHMOA Bangladesh Hotel and Motel Owner’s Association BRAC Bangaladesh Rural Advancement Committee BRDB Bangaladesh Rural Development Board BSCIC Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation CCC Co-Management Committee and Council CMC Co-Management Committee CPG Community Patrol Group CREL Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods DAE Department of Agricultural Extension DFO District Fisheries Officer DLO District Livestock Officer DOC Day Old Chick DOF Department of Fisheries ECA Ecologically Critical Area ECOTA Economic Corporation Organization Trade Agreement EPB Export Promotion Bureau FAO Food and Agriculture Organization FAOSTAT Food and Agriculture Organization Statistical Database (United Nations) GDP Gross Domestic Product GI Geographical Indicator GOB Government of Bangladesh ICS Improved Cooking Stoves IDF Integrated Development Foundation IGA Income Generating Activities IPAC Integrated Protected Area Co-Management JDPC Jute Diversification Promotion Center MoA Ministry of Agriculture MOEF Ministry of Environment & Forests MOFL Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock MT Metric Ton NGO Non-Government Organization NP National Park NSP Nishorgo Support Project PA Protected Areas PF Peoples' Forum PPI Pro-Poor Income R.Ex. Resource Extractor RF Reserve Forest ii SHED Social Health and Education Development SME Small and Medium Enterprise SRDI Soil Resource Development Institute SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats TOR Terms of Reference ToT Training of Trainers TRIPS Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement UNDP United Nations Development Programme USAID United Stated Agency for International Development VC Value Chain VCA Value Chain Analysis VCF Village Conservation Forum WS Wildlife Sanctuary WTO World Trade Organization Bigha 33 decimal Kani 40 decimal in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazaar, 30 decimal in Sylhet region Lakh/Lac 100,000 Sadar Administrative center of a district Upazila Sub-District iii Executive Summary Background USAlD Bangladesh‟s Climate Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) is a five-year project with the aim to scale up and adapt successful co-management models to conserve and protect ecosystems, improve governance of natural resources and increase resilience to climate change. The objective and mandate of the project is to strengthen the ability of the poor and disadvantaged who rely on forest and wetland resources to adapt to climate change, and to improve and diversify their livelihoods, through environmentally sustainable means. In order to identify the alternative livelihoods on which the project can work on, a value chain selection and assessment was carried out. The main objective of the study was to find out the potential value chains and analyzing the value chains to come up with strategies and interventions to ensure sustainable livelihoods for the project beneficiaries of southwest region that lead to reduce pressure on natural resources. The study was conducted in two phases where in phase-1, three potential value chains were identified that meet the project objectives and in phase-2, in-depth value chain analysis of the selected value chains were done. Methodology The study was conducted in line with the USAID guideline for value chain analysis as available on microlinks wiki (http://microlinks.kdid.org/) in almost every step. CREL proposed a series of criteria for value chain selection which was adopted by Innovision for the selection exercise. However, due to the special considerations for choosing climate resilient value chains for the project beneficiary who were already selected (listed), slight modifications were made to serve the project‟s purpose. In the first phase, we used funnel approach to identify and select three potential value chains for the region. The approach used five steps; first, we have reviewed relevant secondary literatures, interviewed CREL staffs and reviewed potential site-wise value chains identified by CREL regional staffs and develop a long list of value chains. Then using cut-off criteria the team has selected 5-10 value chains. The cut off criteria that used was „Value chains that deplete forest and/or wet land directly will be ineligible for selection‟. Besides cut off criteria 12 more selection criteria were set and weightage assigned against each criterion. Then the team conducted a rapid assessment of the short listed value chains in the field. Overall, 18 in-depth interviews with influential stakeholders along with 7 FGDs with 91 beneficiaries were conducted. In addition, 100 beneficiaries were individually profiled to get a sense of their economic situation and available resources. The findings then were validated with key stakeholders and project staff in a validation workshop. The set of mandates and economic criteria were used to rank the attractiveness of the short listed value chains. Each value chain was given a score against every criterion. Then the highest scored value chains were selected for the region. The main challenge of the study was to reach all the selected beneficiaries through the selected three value chains which was quite difficult as a significant number of beneficiary do not have minimum resource to engage in any value chain. In this context, consultation with CREL management, the consultants looked at other trades opportunity to the beneficiary for skill development along with the in-depth value chain analysis of the three selected value chains and nature based tourism. A seperate report was generated for the nature based tourism. For Northeast region, the selected value chains were Horticulture, Tilapia with Carp and Ducks (layer). Our estimation is that these value chains and trades will cover majority of the target beneficiaries, if not all of the target beneficiaries of this region. With the list of selected value chains, a team consisting of lead consultant, value chain analyst and research assistant went to the study region again; northeast. To analysis the selected value chains; the consultants followed the USAID microlink guidelines for value chain analysis. The value chain analysis covered end market analysis, iv value chain mapping, constraints and opportunities analysis and strategies to address the constraints and utilizing the opportunities. In total, 247 respondents of different type of actors of these three value chains were interviewed in this phase to have in-depth information about the value chains. Findings In horticulture, the main focus is on vegetables with supplementary work on citrus. In vegetables, the focus is on year-round tomato, French bean (forash) for its long shelf life, eggplant for its consistent stream of income and other vegetables. Citrus,