MAFAP and Government of Bangladesh join forces to make public spending a key driver of agricultural productivity and prosperity

FAO's Monitoring and Analysing Food and Agricultural Policies (MAFAP) programme and the Government of Bangladesh are currently hosting a high-level technical workshop in Dhaka to lay the groundwork for a new portfolio of technical support aimed at accelerating the country’s agricultural sector transformation. This policy support leverages analytics from the MAFAP programme to compile and monitor public expenditure in the food and agriculture sector and find ways to optimizing such spending to accelerate Bangladesh’s agricultural transformation programme (ATP).

Taking place in Dhaka, the two-day workshop brings together government officials, policymakers, and technical experts to share the preliminary findings of an analysis on public expenditure in Bangladesh's food and agriculture sector. Using these data-driven insights, the MAFAP programme will partner with the Ministry of Agriculture, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), and other relevant institutions to track whether future spending aligns with the ATP pillars.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, held at the BARC premises, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, said: “As we navigate the complexities of evolving global challenges—climate change, economic shocks, trade disruptions, and technological transformations—effective policy monitoring and analysis have become critical". “FAO has been a longstanding and trusted partner of the Government of Bangladesh. They will collaborate in identifying ways on how public expenditures and investments can be optimized in the framework of the agricultural transformation that will empower farmers, enhance food security, and drive sustainable agricultural development", he added. He emphasized the MAFAP programme’s data-driven approach and renowned analytical methodology, which would help “ensure whether our policies are effective and sustainable or not”, adding that its policy analysis would be “invaluable”.

Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian addresses attendees.

The workshop also included a demonstration of the FAO’s Policy Optimization Modelling Tool (PolOpT) and how it could help the Government of Bangladesh maximize the impact of its food and agriculture spending. By optimizing the way in which existing budgetary resources are allocated across different policy support measures and subsectors with PolOpT, Bangladesh could stand to boost agrifood GDP, create more off-farm jobs in rural areas, lift more people out of poverty, and make healthy diets more affordable for all.

Deputy Director for Agrifood Economics and Policy at FAO and head of the MAFAP programme, Dr. Marco V. Sánchez, said “We are all on the same page here in Dhaka; that we need to not only monitor public spending on food and agriculture to track trends, but go a step further to optimize this government spending, so that every taka is spent more effectively for more jobs, higher agrifood output growth, less poverty, and more affordable healthy diets for the people of Bangladesh”. “This would be a pivotal step in Bangladesh’s agricultural transformation and the agrifood sector’s contribution to the rest of the economy, and FAO stands ready to support the government to make that happen”, he added.

Dr. Marco V. Sánchez presenting at the Dhaka workshop.

Experts also saw how the tool will help Bangladesh to prioritize high-potential commodities for greatest socioeconomic impact by strategically allocating spending levels on areas such as extension services, fertilizers, irrigation, mechanization, R&D, and seeds.

During the workshop, stakeholders also went over preliminary results of MAFAP’s food and agriculture expenditure analysis and actively participated in validating data with a view to fine-tuning key information to develop the policy analysis and prospective scenarios with PolOpT.

Executive Chairman of BARC, Dr. Nazmun Nahar Karim, said that the country’s strategies must be “well-informed by rigorous data analysis and monitoring mechanisms”. Underscoring the importance of collaboration, she added that the workshop was “not only a platform to share knowledge but an opportunity to also foster collaboration between different government institutions” as the challenges in the agricultural sector “are complex and interlinked”.

Executive Chairwoman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Dr. Nazmun Nahar Karim.

FAO Representative in Bangladesh, Mr. Jiaoqun Shi said “FAO remains committed to supporting the Government of Bangladesh in strengthening its policy frameworks for sustainable agricultural sector”. He highlighted that the MAFAP programme can “play a pivotal role, offering a structured approach to assessing the effectiveness of food and agricultural policies and ensuring they are aligned with national development priorities”.

FAO Representative in Bangladesh Jiaoqun Shi (left) next to the Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Dr. Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian.