Slide 1 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Seminar at WorldFish, Dhaka, Bangladesh

29 August 2013

Leveraging vegetable seed companies for enhanced nutritional outcomes of population in Bangladesh

Presented by Ray-Yu Yang, Nutritionist, AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan

S.M. Abdul Mukit, Marketing Manager, Lal Teer Seed, Bangladesh

Slide 2 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Vegetable availability vs. health/nutrition status

Health status indicator:Children under 5 mortality rate

Nutrition status indicator:Children under 5 underweight

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

50

100

150

200

250

300

Vegetable availability (g/person/day)

Ch

ildre

n <

5 m

ort

alit

y ra

te (

1/1

00

0)

Niger

Mali

Tanzania

Philippines

r = - 0.52p < 0.001n = 171

Bangladesh

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 8000

10

20

30

40

50

60

Vegetable availability (g/person/day)

Ch

ildre

n <

5 u

nd

erw

eig

ht (

%)

Niger

Mali

Tanzania

Philippines

r = - 0.53p < 0.001n = 148

Bangladesh

Source: Keatinge et al., 2012

Slide 3 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Share of vegetable consumption (availability) in Asia(min. 200 g/day/person)

5%

59%56% 88%71%

8%4%

87%

7%

14%29%36%

8% 12% 15%

715 g/day 423 g/day 422 g/day 171g/day

144 g/day

Onion

Tomatoes

Other veg

Eastern Asia38

Western Asia23

Central Asia23

S Asia

9

SE Asia

8

Source: RYY 2011, Data: FAOSTAT 2010

Slide 4 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Share of vegetable consumption (availability) in SS Africa(min. 200 g/day/person)

Source: RYY, 2013; Data source: FAOSTAT 2012

Improving incomes, nutrition and health in Bangladesh through potato, sweetpotato, and

vegetables

USAID Horticulture Project-CIP/AVRDC

04/11/2023 5

Slide 6 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

The value chain flow can be restricted by poor food habits and unawareness of the nutritional significance of healthy diets, including vegetable consumption

Seeds(genebank/breeding)

Field Plate HumanMarket

Home-based production

Slide 7 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Promotion of healthy eating and vegetable consumption in Bangladesh (USAID-CIP/AVRDC-Horticulture Project)

• Promotion mechanisms – Nutrition and health extension channels

• CNS –community nutrition scholars• Target: low income HH

– Projects: WorldFish, SPRING, Government Nutrition/Health– Agricultural extension channels

• Project field days and agricultural training/promotion• Target: farmers (consumers, buyers) and their families

• Vegetable seed companies• Target: farmers (consumers, buyers) and their families

Slide 8 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Advantage of nutrition outreach to farmers and farm families via seed companies

• Many seed companies have strong farmer extension activities to promote sound crop management practices to maximize productivity

• Seed companies routinely conduct farmer field days for promotion of vegetable seed sales and reach thousands of farmers throughout the country.

• Promoting increased production and consumption of vegetables is in the interest of vegetable seed companies

• Seed companies would gain financially by increased production and consumption of vegetables

Slide 9 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Lal Teer Seed Company

• Based in Bangladesh• Part of Multimode group of

companies• Strong vegetable R&D • Seed and input distribution

network throughout Bangladesh• Strong sense of corporate social

responsibility

Covering 493 Upazillas

Slide 10 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Program name Districts covered

No of programs conducted

No of beneficiaries

Community Meetings 15 240 9,600

Field days 64 1200 1,200,000

Demo plots 64 1500 2,000,000

Farmers' information Booths 05 Continuous Many

Lal Teer Seed technology dissemination

Demo plot

Community Meeting

Service Booth

Slide 11 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Nutrition promotion and home garden training

Farmers buy benefits not products (seeds)

Slide 12 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Case Study -

• Enhanced nutritional outcomes of populations through nutrition-sensitive agricultural promotion by a vegetable seed company in Bangladesh

Slide 13 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Goal and objectives

Long term goal• Increase supplies of nutritious food and increase consumption of

healthy diets in developing countries. Medium term objectives• Enhanced public awareness, demand for and access to nutrient-

rich vegetables for rural and urban poor with emphasis on nutritious diets for women and children

Specific objectives in year one• Strengthen the nutritional impact pathway of vegetable production

in Bangladesh through collaboration with a vegetable seed company.

Slide 14 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Nutritional impact pathway of vegetable seed companies with agricultural oriented extension and marketing

Slide 15 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Enhanced nutritional impact pathway of vegetable seed companies with nutrition integrated agricultural extension and marketing, and the A4NH project interventions

Slide 16 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Case study

• Project sites: Barisal and Faridpur (new area for Lal Teer Seed, target area for USAID-Horticulture Project)

• Targets: farmers (commercial production) and household women (home garden)

• Interventions: – Lal Teer Seed outreach program including A, B, C, D grade of farmer field

days and home garden training and promotion – Enhanced nutrition messages emphasiszing healthy diets, vegetable

consumption, recipes and nutritional physical benefits and outcomes– Piggy back nutritional promotion with Lal Teer Seed outreach programs and

seed dealers. • Evaluation: quasi-experiment or randomized control study;

measurements: veg production, knowledge gains, attitude change

Slide 17 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Potential expansion of the case study approach to other regions

Slide 18 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

AVRDC’s relationship with private seed sector

• Long history of service and collaboration with seed companies in S/SE Asia and East Africa• Seed company benefited from access and use of AVRDC

vegetable breeding lines• AVRDC-APSA (Asia and Pacific Seed Association) Consortium

(2003-2013)

Slide 19 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Potential seed companies for scale out in Africa

East and Central Africa: • Simlaw (Kenya Seed Company) and East

Africa Seed Company (Kenya)– Directly market seeds in Kenya, Tanzania

and Uganda, and indirectly in Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and South Sudan

– Simlaw is promoting nutrition and East Africa wants to.

– Both understand that increased demand for vegetables means more seed sales.

West Africa • Technisem Seed (based in Senegal)

Meeting with Simlaw, 27/05/13

Meeting with East Africa Seed, 27/05/13

Slide 20 (RYY, 29 August 2013)

Perspectives

• Seed companies can strengthen both agricultural production (vegetable supply) and nutrition awareness (vegetable demand) of farmers and their families

• Wide and sustained reach to customers (farmers)• Complements and reinforces nutrition extension • AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center is in a good position to lead

the proposed approach and collaborate with partners under the Nutrition Sensitive Value Chain Component of the A4NH Program