MMI Project Steering Committee Meeting

The second Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting was held virtually on 9 September 2020 on Zoom. The meeting was called by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to review the current progress of the project and to approve the necessary adjustment. The main agenda items were: (i) review of first PSC recommendations; (ii) progress review (up to August 2020); (iii) approval of additional activities and financing for COVID-19 emergency response; and (iv) extension of the project end date for additional activities (next two Boro seasons). After a lengthy discussion, the PSC came to the following four decisions.

Decision 1: The additional budget of USD 1.22 million from GAFSP will be utilized for farmers’ health, farm bio-security, safe food production, machinery and transportation rentals and operation of virtual call centers. The funds should be provided to MMI-FOs through a letter of agreement (LoA) and direct support from the FAO-MMI project.

Decision 2: Agent banking should be started with strong FOs of MMI. FAO-MMI team can provide a list of ‘A’ category FOs to the Bangladesh Bank and National Commercial Banks (NCBs) for piloting.

Decision 3: Considering the activities disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the approved additional activities with additional funding received from the GAFSP – the project may be extended for one and half years (up to September 27, 2022) after the end of the current period of March 27, 2021.

Decision 4: FAO should explore how to mainstream the MMI approach across the country by strengthening apex producers’ organizations.