AFIP in detail

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AFIP: Agroforestry Improvement Partnership
Where do we work?
AFIP supports a national initiative for the development and distribution of quality planting material of agroforestry species to farmers throughout Bangladesh . The Project gives particular attention to Rajshahi Division.
A bit of history
The first Sustainable Land Use (SLU) Programme (1986 - 2003) of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in Bangladesh promoted the establishment of private nurseries in the northwest region through the Village and Farm Forestry Project (VFFP). The purpose was to make planting material of fruit trees and timber trees readily available to small farmers. A self-reliant professional network of over 2,000 nursery owners, annually selling 19 M saplings at commercial rates, was developed by 2003.
Despite this success, the genetic quality of the planting material remained poor - limiting the return to the farmer. SDC therefore initiated the Fruit Tree Improvement Project (FTIP) in 1999 and the Agroforestry Improvement Project (AFIP-1) in 2001 to address this issue. Both projects achieved considerable success in establishing sustainable local-level systems of multiplication and distribution of quality planting material (QPM). However, this development was limited to the programme area and was not sustainable since it did not fully involve those national organisations responsible for such activities. It realised that the problem of QPM was a national issue requiring a national solution.
Discussion with stakeholders revealed considerable interest in developing systematic and collaborative systems of QPM development and distribution. AFIP would support the evolving partnership to reinforce the recent initiatives undertaken by the concerned national research and development agencies.
AFIP is one of the three projects within SDC's new SLU Programme that started in 2004. The overall goal of the Programme is to make a substantial contribution to the long-term reduction of poverty through a more sustainable and intensified use of natural resources. AFIP takes over the essential objectives of AFIP-1 and FTIP but aims for greater sustainability through encouraging the ownership of the concerned stakeholders.

Who do we work for?

The primary beneficiaries of AFIP are small and marginal farmers' households - including those having only homesteads - the large majority of whom are poor. Agroforestry - particularly the mixed cultivation of a wide variety of trees and crops (fruit trees, timber trees, bamboo, vegetables, spices, medicinal plants) in and around homesteads - is of immense importance to the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers in Bangladesh, who represent over 50 % of the total rural population and for whom the homestead constitutes the main resource base for their livelihoods. At the national scale, rural homesteads (totalling 0.3 million ha) supply about 65% of timber and 80% of fuel wood and bamboo used in Bangladesh while the contribution of the country's 2.2 million ha forestlands (with 6-7% actual tree cover) in this regard is much less. Homestead production including vegetables, livestock and fish, meets about 50% of the total requirements of food and cash of poor rural families.

		Our purpose and vision
		The goal of AFIP is that Small farmers throughout Bangladesh have ready access to quality planting material of desired varieties of agroforestry species - as a result of a systematic national programme of QPM development and distribution involving key stakeholders'. Its purpose is to contribute to the achievement of the above goal by supporting and promoting collaboration between the concerned national stakeholders.
		Our Objectives
		AFIP will provide support to stakeholders in order that the following objectives are achieved:
		•	A systematic and long-term national programme of QPM development is established by concerned national research institutions (BARI, BFRI, universities)
		•	A national distribution system for quality planting material to farmers is adopted by existing stakeholders (research institutions, extension agencies, NGOs, nursery associations) and is effectively established throughout Bangladesh - initially in Rajshahi Division

Our approaches
AFIP reinforces the initiatives of the concerned national research and development agencies in order to promote the access of farmers to QPM by providing targeted technical and financial support to partners - through MOUs. It particularly supports the following activities of the partners:
•	Development of long-term tree improvement programmes at the mandated national research institutions.
•	Enhancement of the coordination role of the National Agroforestry Working Group and the institutional development of the key partners.
•	Promotion of coordination amongst stakeholders to ensure the attainment of plant introduction and variety development as well as the multiplication and distribution of QPM for the satisfaction of the farmers' needs, market demand, biodiversity conservation and overall profitability.
•	Adoption of successful experiences of the SLU programme related to promotion of nursery associations in the NW region by the stakeholders at national level to help them promote similar development throughout the country.

Our partners and Alliances
•	Mandated national organisations for the development, multiplication and distribution of QPM: Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Department of Agricultural Extension, Forest Department, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation.
•	Universities dealing with agroforestry.
•	Nursery associations (particularly in the NW) - for multiplying and selling QPM and for maintaining local biodiversity.
•	Concerned national NGOs and development agencies (eg. BRAC, Proshika).
•	Relevant regional and international institutions: ICRAF, CSRIO, RECOFTC, IPGRI.

Our assets
•	Strong collaboration with the key institutions in Bangladesh for the development, establishment and distribution of QPM 320 Mother Tree Orchard
•	Linkages with the related regional and international organisations
•	Varieties/ seed sources already developed by national research institutions
•	Successful experience of the SLU Programme regarding the establishment of local systems of QPM (plus trees, mother tree orchards)
•	Successful experience in the participatory development of improved systems such as multiplication and distribution of quality planting material by professional nursery owners 6,500 in 45 districts
•	Collaboration with 2,800 small and marginal farmer groups in Rajshahi Division in the northwest and Sunamganj district in the northeast
•	Effective training and extension approaches, tools and materials
•	Backstopping and experience from IC head office and its projects in the region

Main activities

•	Development of strategies and long-term programme of QPM development for fruit trees and for timber and associated species by the mandated national research institutes and universities.
•	Improvement of processes and facilities for plant introduction, variety development and for germplasm conservation and multiplication at the national research institutions.
•	Establishment of improved techniques of multiplication of QPM and management of its sources.
•	Promotion of nursery associations for the establishment of a national QPM distribution system by the concerned stakeholders.
•	Effective operation of the national QPM distribution system between the developers of the planting material and the commercial nurseries throughout Rajshahi Division.
•	Establishment of participatory quality control mechanisms for production and distribution of QPM by stakeholders.
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