Food Security for Sustainable Household Livelihoods (FoSHoL) project targets the small and marginal farmers as primary project participants. CARE, Actionaid, ITDG and Proshika implement the project, while the IRRI plays the coordination role.
The purpose of FoSHoL-CARE is to bring sustainable improvements in food security and livelihoods of agriculture dependent, resource poor households in selected Barind Tract areas by implementing and adapting appropriate technical, social, and organizational aspects of farming. CARE Bangladesh in close collaboration with a number of local organizations (i.e. subcontractors) implements the project. High Barind Tract areas covering parts of the districts of Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi and Naogaon, emerged as one of the one of the more vulnerable parts of the country. In comparison with many other rural areas of Bangladesh, the Barind Tract presents particular complexities in aspects such as the inequality of prevaling land tenure patterns, village dynamics related to ethnic and social contrasts, and the specific gender division of agricultural labor.
It has somewhat higher elevations than the rest of the country, is generally drier and has aboriginal, or adibashi, populations. Seasonal food insecurity is a critical problem especially for households falling in the "extreme poor" for most of the period of a year. Large numbers of households are engaged in agricultural labor and/or sharecropping with absentee landowners.
The project
Food security for Sustainable Household Livelihoods (FoSHoL)-CARE seeks to build the capacities of targeted food insecure farm households in communities in the Barind Tract. Working in selected vulnerable communities, the project intends to:
- build the capacities of targeted households to innovate in the their agricultural activities,
- train selected participants to become Resource Poor Farmers capable of facilitating agricultural innovation in their commmunities,
- build the capacities of community groups to work together to address constraints and opportunities affecting food security and
- build the capacities of local actors to replicate and sustain project activities.
The overall objective for FoSHoL-CARE is to contribute to improvements in the livelihoods and especially the food security of targeted rural farm households by increasing the availability, improving access and utilization of food by targeted households.The project will directly benefit 18,750 food insecure households among them 15,000 households will be selected to work directly. In addition, the project will select resource farmers (one from each of the 600 groups) from these households and reach another 3,750 households through them. Resource farmers will receive intensive training so that they can become extension agents in their own communities. The four results envisioned in the project are expected to have significant impact on the livelihoods of the project participants. The enhanced innovative capacity of participating households is expected to also result in increased diversity of farm productivity.
The group activities supported by the project should have impact on not only the supply of food (e.g. improved irrigation, input supply, storage and sharecropping terms) and access to food (e.g. better marketing, storage, processing, and sharecropper terms) but also utilization of food (e.g. potable water supply, sanitation infrastructure, nutrition and health eduction) by the targeted project participants, as well as to some extent other food insecure households in the community.
Project areas
FoSHoL-CARE is working in 13 Upazilas of 3 Barind Districts covering approximately 15,000 households. These are: Chapai Nawabganj (Chapai Nawabganj Sadar, Bholarhat, Gomastapur and Nachole), Naogaon (Dhamoirhat, Manda, Mahadevpur, Niamatpur, Porsha, Sapahar and Patnitala) and Rajshahi (Godagari and Tanor). |
