Social Enterprises: Agriculture

Storage

BRAC Cold Storage was initiated in 1980 with assistance from the UN Development Programme. The facility, based in the Comilla district, facilitates the storage of potatoes for farmers in the mid-eastern region of the country, as the area yields good harvests of potatoes but lacks adequate storage capacities. BRAC also offers the farmers loans equal to 40% of the total value of the potatoes they store to aid them financially.

Tea

BRAC Tea Estates were acquired in 2003 to provide a means of income generation. The surplus income is diverted to the development programmes. The estates cover four tea gardens in Chittagong district, employing 3,000 people, and producing 16,00,366 kilogrammes of tea in 2008.

Sericulture (Silkworm Cultivation)

The purpose of BRAC Sericulture is to organise women to undertake the following:

• mulberry cultivation
• silkworm & seed production
• reeling & spinning of silk yarn
• weaving & marketing silk

The programme is currently working on introducing high yielding varieties of mulberry trees to areas in northern Bangladesh that suffer from seasonal famine each year. In 2008, 7,500 women were rearing silk worms and 5,800 women were involved in spinning, producing 25 metric tonnes of raw silk.

Horticulture (Seedling Production)

The objective of BRAC Horticulture is to produce high quality seedlings and make them available throughout the country. We also aim to increase the number of high quality trees through production, distribution and technological advances.  BRAC has 15 large horticulture nurseries throughout Bangladesh. In addition to the seedling production and distribution in Bangladesh, BRAC is exploring opening research and production centres to complement its agricultural programmes in Tanzania and Uganda.

  back to Social Enterprises