JBRSOFT is undertaking a pivotal project in Cox's Bazar, a district in Bangladesh confronted with significant challenges including climate risks, food insecurity, malnutrition, and poverty. The arrival of Rohingya refugees has placed immense strain on local communities, infrastructure, and services, notably in the Teknaf, Ukhiya, Chakaria, and Cox's Bazar Sadar sub-districts. Additionally, the escalating impacts of climate change and frequent natural disasters have made agricultural infrastructure highly vulnerable, severely impeding farming efforts for local practitioners. This has led to a noteworthy decline in agricultural productivity over time, intensifying threats to food security in the region.
In collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), BRAC has launched a project to address pressing concerns. This initiative is focused on enhancing agricultural infrastructure for vulnerable farmers in the four sub-districts of Cox's Bazar. The primary goal is to strengthen agricultural productivity and ensure food security within the designated project areas. The project's scope encompasses an evaluation of how improvements in agricultural infrastructure impact crop production, with a special emphasis on safeguarding the food resources of the most vulnerable farmers. To guarantee these positive outcomes, the project has prioritized capacity building for farmers through extension services and has worked to improve accessibility to agricultural infrastructure, including upgrading feeder roads, re-excavating canals, establishing riverside plantations, and enhancing culverts, drains, and water reservoirs, among other initiatives. Additionally, the project addresses the environmental implications of infrastructure development, particularly in catchment areas within Cox's Bazar district, with the aim of mitigating disaster risks.
JBRSOFT's focus lies in meticulously assessing the effects of agricultural infrastructure improvements on food security, providing valuable insights for further refinements based on feedback from direct beneficiaries. Specific objectives include evaluating the impact of these improvements on food security, appraising the environmental outcomes of infrastructure development to enhance agricultural production, offering constructive recommendations for ongoing improvement, conducting a thorough review of related project work provided by WFP/BRAC, formulating questionnaires for individual surveys, coordinating focus group discussions and key informant interviews, and conducting a pilot-test of the questionnaire before the final survey.