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Policy Framework forStrategic Plan 2002-2006The DAE Strategic Plan for the year2002-2006 has been prepared basedon the experiences and learning fromthe last DAE Strategic Plan(1999-2002).Moreover, the National AgriculturalPolicy (1999) and its associated Plan ofAction (August, 2002), the NationalStrategy for Economic Growth, PovertyReduction and Social Development(March 2003), the National RuralDevelopment Policy (2000) , the NewAgricultural Extension Policy (1996), the

Public Administrative ReformCommittee's (PARC, 2000) report,current BBS, Bangladesh EconomicReview (2001) have also beenconsulted. More over the outcome of 32DAE senior officers' strategic positionanalysis, five workshops held withDistrict Agricultural Extension PlanningCommittee (DAEPC) members andlessons arising from field visitsconducted by DAE Strategic PlanWorking Group members were alsoconsidered.

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The Role of DAEThe Department of Agricultural Extension(DAE) is the core organization of theMinistry of Agriculture. The overallresponsibility of the department is to provideagricultural extension services to allcategories of farmers in order to enablethem to optimize use of their resources witha view to becoming self sufficient in foodproduction and to improve their nutritionalstatus. More specifically, the roles of DAEare to:

Provide farmers with the latest researchresults and scientific farming techniquesfor their socioeconomic betterment ;

Motivate and help farmers adoptingimproved production practice thatwould increase their farm productionand income and thereby meet nationalconsumption requirements, maximizeexport and minimize imports;

Provide efficient linkages between thevarious research institutes and thefarmers so that farmers problems arebrought to the relevant researchinstitutions for investigation andsolution;

Develop and promote environmentallysound farming practices that will besustainable over long term;

Serve as liaison agency betweenfarmers and other organisations, bothpublic and private including creditgiving and input supplying agencies foroverall socioeconomic development ofrural people;

Provide a channel for relaying farmersproblems and needs to the Ministry ofAgriculture and its different departmentsthat require national level intervention;

Provide educational opportunities(diploma in agriculture) through DAEAgricultural Training Institutes;

Promote agribusiness, marketing andminimizing post harvest losses, andprovide vocational educationopportunities for rural people wishingto enter agriculture as a career and

Transform DAE Mission statement intoaction. The DAE Mission Statement is:

The Department of Agricultural Extension's mission isto provide efficient and effective needs based

extension services to all categories of farmers toenable them to optimize their use of resources, in

order to promote sustainable agricultural andsocioeconomic development.

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Review of DAE StrategicPlan 1999-2002 The DAE Strategic Plan for 1999-2002sought to achieve 68 major objectives undersix themes. These were: (i) ExtensionApproach Development (ii) PartnershipDevelopment (iii) Mainstreaming Gender (iv)Mainstreaming Environment (v) HumanResources Management and (vi) InformationSystem Development. The objectives weredesigned to be met within a three-yearperiod.

In order to implement the ssttrraatteeggiicc ppllaann fiveworking groups were established. Thesewere (i) Revised Extension Approach (REA)Implementation Working Group ;(ii)Environmental Working Group; (iii)Partnership, Social Development andGender Working Group; (iv) ManagementInformation System (MIS) Working Groupand (v) Human Resources Management(HRM) Committee.

Each of the working groups tookresponsibility for facilitating theimplementation of the strategic objectives.The working groups were comprised of arange of staff from DAE H/Q. They metalmost every month for implementing therelevant areas of the strategic plan. TheREA Implementation Working Group tookthe responsibility for implementing extensionapproach while Environmental WorkingGroup for Mainstreaming Environment ;Partnership, Social Development andGender Working Group for PartnershipDevelopment and Mainstreaming Gender;MIS Working Group for Information SystemDevelopment and Human ResourcesManagement Committee for HumanResources Management.

In spite of many constraints, a considerableachievement has been made for theimplementation of the strategic plan. Asummary of the achievement is given below:

Achievement

Extension ApproachDevelopment

DAE implemented its Revised ExtensionApproach (REA) during the first strategicplan period to address the department'smission within the context of the NAEP;

A supervision checklist was developedaiming to assist DAE officers to conductsupervision effectively;

Ten thousand posters for extensiondevelopment were produced anddistributed;

Problem Census Cards for conductingproblem census effectively were alsodeveloped and 64 District TrainingOfficers (DTO) were trained;

The Integrated Extension Approach(IEA) began to be piloted with the help

of ASIRP. The overall objective of thispilot is to develop a coordinated andintegrated extension mechanismthrough which all extension providersat grass root level will work together toaddress farmers problems. The IEAmodels are UAECC StrengtheningModel; Resource Center and LocalGovernment model, Specialist Co-operation model, Farmer Led Extensionmodel (FLE) and support to 12Upazilas model. Staff from extensionservices providers including DAE, DLS,DOF and NGOs are working on thesemodels;

DAE made use of the Farmer FieldSchool (FFS) extension approach topromote Integrated Pest Management,particularly through the StrengtheningPlant Protection Services (SPPS) projectand

DAE linked with NGOs operatingmicro-finance schemes, particularlythrough ADIP and SAIP.

DAE has developed partnership amongGOs, NGOs, research organizationsand private agencies for providingcoordinated extension support to thefarming community, throughMemoranda of Understanding andPartnership Initiative Funds throughASIRP;

Forums including the Extension PolicyImplementation Co-ordinationCommittee (EPICC), AgriculturalTechnical Committees (ATC), DistrictAgricultural Extension PlanningCommittee (DAEPC), and UpazilaAgricultural Extension CoordinatingCommittees (UAECC) are in operation;

A media campaign to raise awarenessof the NAEP was conducted. Thisincluded promotional folders forpartnership, a partnership logo and a

Partnership Development

Six seminars and workshops on gendersensitization were held at national andregional levels;

A synopsis of all relevant nationalpolicies related to Women InDevelopment (WID) have beenproduced and circulated for creatingawareness;

About 30-50 per cent women farmerswere included in different trainingevents such as IPM, post-harvestactivities, homestead gardening,nutrition and establishing nurseries;

Most of the departmental projects werealso designed to involve womenfarmers as beneficiaries and hadspecific targets to achieve;

An officer (DAE WID Focal Point)continued reporting to the Ministry ofAgriculture (MoA) about the continuedstatus of gender issues in DAE;

A DAE gender logo was developed anddistributed among DAE members;

Messages related to gender issues wereprepared and aired through FarmBroadcast Unit and

DAE is a partner in the Organisation ofProfessional Women in Extension andResearch (POWER).

Mainstreaming Gender

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partnership video with messagespromoting the NAEP and

The DAE-NGO Liaison Committee hasbeen revived with equitable membersfrom DAE and 11 apex NGOs, throughmembership subscription, and fundraising.

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Mainstreaming Environment

The department ran 4426 activitieson integrated pest management(IPM), green manuring, tree planting,soil health, organic insecticides andeco-village development during thestrategic plan period;

An Eco-team module was alsodeveloped for DAE upazila level staff,whilst ATI staff were trained in organicfarming;

DAE prepared the policy onIntegrated Pest Management (IPM) in2002

Six workshops and seminars wereheld on 'environment and agriculture'to identify existing and new issuesregarding environmental degradationand pollution and to find outsolutions;

Environment logo was developed anddistributed;

Environment policy and legislationwere reviewed to supportmainstreaming of environmentalissues in extension programmes and

Under some projects, such as SAIP,DAE has been supporting thedevelopment of Eco-villages.

Human Resource Management

Communication skills training courseswere provided to 10,500 BlockSupervisors;

DAE also provided computer training,training of trainer and teachingtechnology courses to AgriculturalTraining Institute (ATI) instructors athome and abroad;

DAE created opportunities to offerMS (120) and Ph. D (25) degreeprogrammes to young and mid-levelofficers of the department locally andoverseas and

Draft Job descriptions for DAE H/Qofficers were prepared.

Information SystemDevelopment

DAE set up a personnel database forall DAE officers and staff andestablished a managementinformation unit equipped withcomputer and fax facilities up toregion and district offices;

Supporting staff and officers weretrained to use computer facilities forrapid transfer of data andinformation;

E-mail facilities were made availablein headquarters;

Computer training centers wereestablished in Khamarbari and atCERDI and

DAE has set up its web-site(www.daebd.org).

A Revised Training Approach (RTA) andDAE Training Policy were developedduring 2001 to bring all trainingactivities of all projects and wingsunder a common and co-ordinatesprogramme and management system,based upon real training needs;

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Weaknesses

The previous strategic plan was highlyambitious with too many objectives. Manyobjectives were not achievable during thestrategic plan period. Many activitiesinitiated by different working groups didnot continue. The activities of workinggroups stopped as soon as support fromthe ASIRP project ceased. As a result,satisfactory implementation was notachieved. Some of the weaknesses arementioned below:

Complete fulfillment of the strategicobjectives depended on manydifferent activities which were notcarried out in a coordinated way byall extension providers;

ASSP and ASIRP supported thepreparation of the Strategic Plan1999-2002, and as a result manypeople did not perceive it as a DAEdocument. True ownership of thestrategic plan was a major concern.Commitment from DAE centralmanagers was not strong enough toimplement the plan;

Inadequate communication betweenand within DAE about the nature andsignificance of the strategic plan;

During the last strategic plan periodDAE had about 35 projects withdifferent aims and objectives andoperational procedures. Some ofthem were planned prior to SP andtherefore did not reflect the objectivesof the DAE SP;

Most of the DAE projects and Wingscould not follow the principles ofRevised Extension Approach (REA)fully especially decentralised planningsystem;

Inadequate monitoring by EPICC onthe implementation progress of theNAEP;

Support from top managers ofdifferent extension providers wasinsufficient to implement the NAEPeffectively;

Visionary leadership within DAE hasbeen insufficient in making thecultural change in moving topartnership and achieving the DAEmission;

Commitment and accountability werenot enough among stakeholders;

The DAE management committee hasnot led in its crucial role inestablishing and implementing astrategy to achieve the DAE mission.Leaders and members of its workinggroups must be fully committed toactive involvement in the strategy;

Inadequate extension monitoring andevaluation system on theimplementation of the strategic plan;

Partnerships have been funding drivenand a true partnership spirit is yet todevelop. Partnership has beencontractual rather than a part ofnormal business and

Despite the process followed duringpreparation and implementation ofthe last Strategic Plan, a number ofkey issues were avoided -such as theorganisational Structure of DAE, staffmotivation and logistics support.