1. Sub sector: Soybean
1. Situation:
In Bangladesh soybean is mostly used as a full fat input for poultry feed. An insignificant amount goes to
crushing mill for extraction of refined Soybean Oil. Bangladesh imports 100000 MT of Soybean meal to
cater to the demand of feed industry which has been rapidly increasing due to the fast growth of the
livestock (mainly chicken), fishery and shrimp industries. The poultry feed industry uses approximately
400,000 MT soybean meal per annum, 60% of which is imported from India and 40% of which is
produced locally by the solvent extraction industry. However, according to many in the feed industry,
the quality of the Indian soybean meal is often not up to the desired standard. In case of Refined
Soybean Oil Almost 80% is imported from abroad in crude form, mainly from Brazil and Argentina.
Twenty percent (20%) of soybean oil demand is now being met through domestic crushing. Thus the
economic potential for increasing local production of soybean is evident.
Soybean is produced in different parts of the country such as Jessore, Mymensigh, Sylhet but its
production is highly concentrated in one geographic area, the southern coastal Noakhali zone, due to
favorable climatic conditions, presence of one of the country’s largest wholesale markets and a strong
road network connecting the region to the processing centers in Dhaka. According to Ministry of
Agriculture, the plantation area for soybean has grown remarkably in this region and in 2008 acreage
cultivation reached to 56106 hectare, providing livelihood to 75000 households. Approximately 67000
small-scale soybean farmers, 3000 small and medium level traders and 30 processing mills are involved
in this industry. In 2009, the production of soybean in the project region was around 89000 metric ton. It
is estimated by the project that Bangladesh could meet much of its local demand through bringing about
700000 hectares of coastal and char lands under soybean production, which in turn will also help reduce
the country's dependence on importing over one million ton of edible oil a year (costingBDT8000 cores).
Productivity in the project region was found to be only 1.54 MT/ Hectare while the national benchmark
was 2.47 MT/ Hectare. On the marketing side, low average production per farm has attracted higher
number of middlemen or traders as the farmers do not have the economies of scale to sell directly to
the processors located in the cities like Dhaka and Chittagong. Moreover, higher demand from the feed
processing industry has created a local form of lending called ‘dadon.’ In this system, the farmers sell to
the middlemen even before production begins by pledging to supply a certain amount based on a
predetermined rate. This increases vulnerability as the farmers often fail to supply the pledged amount
and also they get a price lower than they could potentially get at the time of harvesting. Also, little or no
value addition takes place at the local level as the processing industry has not yet grown locally.
2. Objectives for working in the sub sector:
• Increase productivity and
• Improve inoculums and seed distribution channel
• Increase farmer’s income
3. What has been done and impact so far:
The RED team facilitated the following activities with the soybean value chain actors, so that farmer can
get access to input market, increase land productivity and finally income:

2. Activities # of events # of framer attended Outcome
Linkage workshop with
producer, buyers, input seller
5 120 Benefited farmer: 540 (Gr. farmer -
120, Non gr. farmer- 420Land
coverage: 7464 decimal
Preseason planning workshop 4 145 Production increased: 2.33
kg/decimal
Facilitated demonstration 6 6 Decrease cost: 3-4 Tk/decimal due to
less use of urea
Informal meeting with
producers
11 215 Increase product selling price: 1-2
Tk/kg
• Develop inoculums sellers and link with BINA.
• Facilitate collection point for aggregation of soybean and sell to the distant big buyers
Collection center- add 05 new buyers and sold Tk 60,00000 per season, Grain Consortium Ltd- bought 5
tons soybean from producer through traders and provide higher price)
4. Strategy for reaching the target beneficiaries (High importance)
farmer Upazila Land coverage Yield Cost
2100 Noakhali: Ramgati, Noakhali Sadar,
Subarnachar
Barisal: Hizla
1500 hectors increase yield
2 kg per
decimal
reduce production
cost 2 Tk/decimal
It is expected that each farmer will cultivate soybean in 20 decimal land, and through the interventions
the additional income will Tk. 3512520 (total land coverage 170 hectors, increase productivity 2.33
kg/dec, decreased cost Tk3/dec and increase soybean selling price Tk 1-2/kg)
Specific activities to support the strategies:
• Provide direct assistance to the soybean producers (training, linkages, demonstrations, market
visit
• Linking with BARI, BINA and DAE facilitate demonstration to improve knowledge on appropriate
use of inoculums for increased yield. Facilitate with private company for manufacturing
inoculums in the local areas
• Facilitate linkage with BADC, seed producing company and local seed sellers for availability of
quality seeds
• Facilitate collection point for direct access to the regional wholesalers, big buyers and feed
manufactures for increase selling price at farm gate.
5. Scale up strategy (secondary importance)
• Contract farming through big buyers or feed manufacturer

3. • Establishment of soybean crushing mills (getting financial/technology support from leasing
company) will increase demand and involved more farmer in soybean production.
6. Constraints matrix:
Areas Constraints Interventions
Input market Weak linkage with the public seeds
research and promotion agencies (access
to quality seed and bio fertilizer).
Promotion of better yielding and pest
resistant varieties by BADC, BARI, DAE. Lily
seed Co. and local seed producer
Farm
production
Lack of awareness and technical know
how about using of bio fertilizer
Improve technical knowledge of using bio
fertilizer for soybean production
Output market • Presence of a strong number of
middlemen reduces price at the farm
gate
Link farmers’ groups with the poultry and
fish feed manufacturers through local
agents or contract farming
• Lack of local processing facilities Promote to established processing unit
Main Intervention areas are available of inoculums, quality seed and Collection center
7. Activity plan:
Activity Sub activity Tota
l
Target for the future Respon
sibility
Year 1 Year 2
NS SC Ra Ba NS SC Ra Ba
Primary focus:
1.Increase use
of inoculums
Organize training for the farmer on inoculums
and quality seed use
36 5 7 5 2 4 5 5 3 Field
Linkage workshop with market actors (input
seller, traders, farmer etc.)
16 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 1
Pre season meeting between farmer, input
sellers (seed & Inno) & traders
30 5 8 6 3 2 2 2 2
Demonstration followed by FFD 15 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1
Marketing visit BARI, DAE, company
(inoculums & seed) and feed company
11 2 2 2 2 2 1 0 0
Promotional activities (poster, signboard,
miking, gathering)
10 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1
3.Available of
quality seed
and
innoculum
Linkage workshop with BARI, BINA, BADC &
DAE for planning of inoculums distribution
2 2 Field
Linkage workshop with company, seller, seed
producer, farmer for quality seed and
inoculums
4 4
Linkage workshop among seed producer, seller
and company for seed business
4 1 1 1 1
4.Inoculums
technology
transfer
through
private Co.
set up
Identify potential private Co. 1 1 Field &
Dhaka
Feasibility study for the business 1 1
Workshop with BINA, financial Org for develop
business plan
4 4
Secondary
focus
5.Facilitate
Collection
center
Facilitate training for dev capacity of the CPMC
(business plan and management)
6 1 1 1 1 1 1

4. Tertiary focus:
6.Facilitate
contact
farming
Identify big buyer at national level 4 Dhaka
Meeting for facilitated contact farming 4 2 2
Organize training for farmer to understand the
contract farming terms
20 3 4 3 2 2 3 2 1
7.Establish
soybean
crushing
Identify entrepreneur to be a soybean
processor
Dhaka
Feasibility study 1 1
Linkage workshop with soybean association
and leasing company
5 3 2
8. Activity Budget:
Activity Cost/b
atch
Part/
batch
Y1 (Jan- Dec 2011) Y2 (Jan-Dec 2012) Total
batch
Total cost
batch T. part T. cost batch T. part T. cost
Marketing training 23,000 20 32 640 736,000 30 600 690,000 62 1,426,000
Linkage workshop 4,575 25 20 500 91,500 15 375 68,625 35 160,125
Marketing visit 33,000 15 6 90 198,000 5 75 165,000 11 363,000
Demonstration & FFD 2,500 100 10 1000 25,000 5 500 12,500 15 37,500
Preseason planning
meeting
500 30 20 600 10,000 10 300 5,000 30 15,000
Promotional activities 20,000 6 120,000 4 80,000 10 200,000
Feasibility study 25,000 2 50,000 0 2 50,000
Impact study 25,000 1 25,000 1 25,000 2 50,000
1,255,500 1046,125 246 2,301,625
9. Monitoring Indicators:
• # of farmers directly involved with project
• Area under improved cultivation
• Increase productivity
• Name of the improve/new technology and # of participants using those technologies
• Enter in to the new markets
• Reduced cost (production, postharvest losses, carrying cost etc)
• Increase product selling prices
• Increase income