Presented by Dr. Ray-Yu Yang (AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center) and Mr. S. M. Abdul Mukit, (Lal Teer Seed) at the WorldFish Bangladesh Office on the 29th of August, 2013. The seminar presented the concept and approach of the new project funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, A4NH. This project intends to build upon the collaboration between AVRDC, CIP and WorldFish in the USAID Feed the Future funded project “Improving incomes, nutrition, and health in Bangladesh through potato, sweet potato, and vegetables” (USAID-Horticulture).

1. 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

2. 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
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Children<5mortalityrate(1/1000)
Vegetable availability (g/person/day)
Niger
Mali
Tanzania
Philippines
r = - 0.52
p < 0.001
n = 171
Bangladesh
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Children<5underweight(%)
Vegetable availability (g/person/day)
Niger
Mali
Tanzania
Philippines
r = - 0.53
p < 0.001
n = 148
Bangladesh
Source: Keatinge et al., 2012

3. 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 171
g/day
144
g/day
Onion
Tomatoes
Other
veg
Eastern Asia
38
Western Asia
23
Central Asia
23
S
Asia
9
SE
Asia
8
Source: RYY 2011, Data: FAOSTAT 2010

4. 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

5. Improving incomes, nutrition and health in
Bangladesh through potato, sweetpotato, and
vegetables
USAID Horticulture Project-CIP/AVRDC
2013/9/2 5

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Slide 11 (RYY, 29 August 2013)
Nutrition promotion and home garden training
Farmers buy benefits not products (seeds)

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Slide 14 (RYY, 29 August 2013)
Nutritional impact pathway of vegetable seed companies
with agricultural oriented extension and marketing

15. 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

16. 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

17. Slide 17 (RYY, 29 August 2013)
Potential expansion of the case study
approach to other regions

18. 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)

19. 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

20. 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