“The type of approach used by CDAIS is quite innovative and helps my understanding of the real scenarios taking place at field level. This project has helped me develop my own functional capacities!”

Hello, who are you?

I’m Salah Uddin Ibne Syed from the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARC) and National Innovation Facilitator in Bangladesh. My academic background is in anthropology and I have BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Dhaka. Later I did another master’s degree in Economic Development at Yeaungnum University in South Korea and studied for a postgraduate diploma in Rural Development Management at the National Institute of Rural Development in Hyderabad, India. At present I am working at BARC as Deputy Director. My main responsibilities are in research, project management and training. For example, I am working as the Livelihoods and Organizations component leader for a project on integrated farming. I am also involved in research identifying issues related to performance of government and NGO microfinance providers. At the start of my career I worked with an agricultural economist from the Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich on the innovative PETRRA project (Poverty Elimination through Rice Research Assistance), from 1999-2004.

What are your roles and responsibilities as National Innovation Facilitator?

My role in the CDAIS project is to work with three national-level organizations responsible for agricultural research, marketing and agro-processing that have been selected for implementing capacity development action plans.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

Farmers in Bangladesh are mostly small-scale producers having a very small amount of land. Marketing their produce is much more challenging and complex than for larger farms. Many different value chain stakeholders are involved. Combining them under the same umbrella is challenging and requires a new way of thinking. Bangladesh rural society is transforming due to rapid population growth, out-migration, technological innovation and increasing diversification of off-farm and non-agricultural rural employment. As a rural development practitioner, my role is to understand this changing context and to ensure it is addressed properly at the policy level, as well as in implementation through action research. I think CDAIS is a better platform for me to perform this role. Understanding these changes is important to address the issues.