Pioneering silk-farming in Bangladesh:

Bangladesh has a rich history of traditional textiles for many generations. When the country gained its independence, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed searched for income generating activities targeted towards people in rural areas living in poverty. 

There was a high demand for silk in Bangladesh. Sir Fazle decided that the cultivation of silk is an opportunity for people to empower themselves out of poverty, keeping alive the tradition of silk rearing in the process. Thus, in 1978, BRAC started its sericulture project. 

BRAC Sericulture is the only institute in Bangladesh which maintains the total chain of sericulture activities - from cultivating silkworm eggs to finished products. At present, 5,927 participants are under BRAC Sericulture Enterprise, involved in sericulture activities, including silkworm rearing and cocoon production, silk reeling, spinning and raw silk production, silk twisting, warping, dyeing and silkweaving.

BRAC Sericulture in the early days:

The sericulture project initially began by providing improved mulberry sapling to farmers, along with technical training for mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing, and spun silk (endi lachi) production by paddle wheel charka spinning. The project also gave loans to farmers to lease land for mulberry plantations where they could rear silkworms. It ensured the supply of disease-free laying (DFLs) to silkworm rearers, which involved purchasing the cocoons from the silkworm rearers to ensure fair price. BRAC also provided cocoons to individual charka spinners and purchased spun silk. It provided secured employment and timely payments for the women involved in the industry. As the farmers did not have access to any stable credit facilities, BRAC created a reliable microfinance system to support them. 

Challenges: 

BRAC faced a number of challenges with this development programme, including low productivity of mulberry leaves, long lasting rainy seasons, low productive silkworm races and inability of farmers to pay back loans. High competition with imported silk from China led to disruption of our cocoon market.

The enterprise model:

Higher quality cocoons and increased productivity in farms propelled BRAC’s sericulture activities into an enterprise model. To ensure the fair price of raw silk, BRAC has developed a value chain from raw cocoon production farm to finished silk production. The finished products are marketed through Aarong. 

BRAC Sericulture at a glance:

1. Silkworm race maintenance and egg production centre    01 Nos
2. Silkworm rearing and cocoon production farms                 10 Nos
3. Silk reeling and raw silk production centre                         01 Nos
4. Spinning and spun silk production centre                           01 Nos
5. Silk twisting and warping centre                                         01 Nos
6. Silk weaving and silk fabrics production centres                06 Nos
7. Marketing                                                            Through Aarong outlets

New initiatives:

BRAC has introduced two improved mulberry varieties named S1635 and Victory-1 to increase mulberry leaf production. Multi-bi hybrids and bi-voltine hybrids in silkworm rearing are being adopted to increase cocoon production and cocoon quality. BRAC Sericulture is working to improve silk quality and increase its volume of production by introducing bi-voltine silkworm race during favourable rearing seasons. 

The enterprise is currently limited to cottage basin reeling machines to produce raw silk, and hand looms and power looms to produce silk fabric, which are being marketed mainly through Aarong’s outlets. Finally, BRAC Sericulture is increasingly focused on the improvement of raw silk quality and fine silk production.

Synergies with Aarong:

BRAC Sericulture has created a direct link with Aarong for the marketing of BRAC Silk and silk goods. Sericulture products such as silk sarees, dupattas, scarves and unstitched fabric are being sold directly through Aarong outlets.

At present, sericulture enterprise considers consumer preferences when diversifying silk products and developing new designs for products. The enterprise works regularly to improve the quality of its new and existing products. By Improving these areas Brac hopes to attain the additional goal of bringing BRAC’s sericulture products to global standards for exporting to international markets.

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Moreover, the health workers and health volunteers working at Shushastho (BRAC’s health centres all over Bangladesh) also recognised the great necessity for an assortment of medical kits which would facilitate safe births. As a response, BRAC initiated the production of the ‘Kollani Delivery Kits’   for rural women in 1999. They were similarly affordable, hygienic and bio-degradable.

Evolution of an enterprise
The production of the sanitary napkins and delivery kits was achieved by employing female members from BRAC’s targeting the ultra poor (TUP) programme, providing them with fair-wage employment in the manufacturing of sanitary products. Initially manufacturing started in one production house with 30 women from the TUP programme in the Kurigram district of Bangladesh. These products were not directly retailed to the target group, but rather were provided by the health workers and health volunteers, selling them for a small profit during their visits to households. Each health worker/volunteer is assigned 100 households in the villages that they serve. In order to distribute these sanitary products to a larger population across the country, production was increased and the enterprise was created in 2004.

Quality products at affordable prices
In order to ensure quality control, the production and expiry dates are always included on the packets. A packet of Nirapod Sanitary Napkins commercially retailed both in the rural and urban market since 2004, costs only BDT 50 (USD 0.64) or BDT 28 (USD 0.36) depending on size (large or small) and the Kollani Delivery Kit costs only BDT 40 (USD 0.52). The cost of these products is kept low by using carefully selected raw materials.

Livelihood opportunities for disadvantaged women in rural communities
Currently, 284 women and 2 men are working in the five production centres located in the Manikganj, Baniachang, Nilphamari, Gopalgonj and Kurigram districts of Bangladesh. Although still somewhat little-known in the urban market, the Nirapod Sanitary Napkins and Kollani Delivery Kits have been widely popular in the rural areas, and have also been commercially retailed in many hard-to-reach regions like Teknaf, Tetulia, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

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Salinity for the rural poor and sustainable livelihood for farmers
Due to a lack of health awareness and malnutrition, many people from rural communities in Bangladesh suffer from various mineral deficiencies like iodine deficiency, which can cause diseases such as goitre and prenatal ill-health. When BRAC Salt enterprise was initiated in 2001 in the Cox’s Bazaar district of Bangladesh, iodine deficiency was acute amongst the rural population across the country and BRAC ventured into producing iodised salt to help curb this problem. BRAC enterprises are mostly known as pioneers in many sectors throughout Bangladesh and BRAC Salt is no exception. Its entry into the iodised salt market inspired many entrepreneurs to produce iodised salt as well.

However, addressing iodine deficiency was not the only motivating factor for BRAC to start operating as a salt enterprise. There was a much deeper mission, one that would ensure sustainable development by encouraging local salt farmers to continue on their income generating paths, especially in view of the supply deficiency for raw salt in Bangladesh which had compelled the government to import salt from other countries. However, BRAC's position on this was that if import of salt was allowed, then two things may happen: Bangladesh's salt market would be externally controlled and local salt farmers may even lose their livelihood due to competition. With this in mind, BRAC started producing salt and eventually convinced the government that there is now less need for imported salt.

BRAC Salt not only supports the salt farmers but also its consumers, who almost exclusively belong to the underprivileged social groups from the rural northern regions of the country.

People precede profit
Although BRAC Salt has had a significant social impact, as an enterprise it has faced some considerable setbacks. Firstly, it became difficult for BRAC to compete within the salt market as it did not want to follow the competitive practices because it would jeopardise its social impact. Moreover, the natural grey salt that it produced also lacked the refinement demanded by the urban population. Therefore, BRAC Salt lacked demand and a steady profit from the urban market, which adversely affected its sustainability. The management even considered closing down the whole enterprise, as it was only a small-scale business and the surplus it made was too small for any further expansion plans. However, taking into consideration over the 120 workers who are dependent on this enterprise for their livelihood, the management decided to downsize, rather than shutting down the entire operation. The enterprise is currently focusing on increasing efficiency and introducing new products to the market.

BRAC Salt today
One of the latest products BRAC Salt introduced into the market is Minamix, a supplementary cattle feed. Researchers at BRAC’s cattle-related enterprises and Bangladesh Livestock Research Centre (BLRC) realised that there was a mineral deficiency in the cows reared by rural farmers, which led BRAC and BLRC to co-create Minamix. It is essentially a high mineral-based salt, containing essential components lacking in the cows. It can be mixed directly into cattle feed, helping farmers raise healthier cows that will produce a higher yield of milk and meat. The challenge now lies in reaching out to rural farmers to educate them about iodine deficiencies in their cows and introducing Minamix. The enterprise is hopeful that once the targeted market recognises the benefits of this innovative product, BRAC Salt will get the chance to revive itself and be established once more as an innovative leader in the salt market.

The beginning and evolution
BRAC Recycled Handmade Paper (RHMP) was initiated as a Rural Enterprise Project (REP) in 2000 with an aim to help prevent environmental degradation by targeting the corporate urban market in Bangladesh to recycle their paper waste. On a different note, it was also introduced to support a small group of drop out female students from BRAC’s education programme by providing them jobs at the production facility of this enterprise.
 
Being a pioneer in the promotion and development of recycled handmade paper and paper products in Bangladesh, this project later evolved into an enterprise in 2009. Although there have been a few scattered producers of this product feeding the niche market and export industry of Bangladesh prior to the evolution of this enterprise, BRAC Handmade Recycled Paper happens to be the first entity to make a proactive approach by manufacturing and retailing the products in urban market under the brand name Kanon.

The present scenario
Today people are more environmentally conscious, and hence their response towards this enterprise is accelerating faster than ever.  The idea of reducing paper wastages and modifying them into creative stationeries intrigue most people, and the satisfaction of contributing even a tiny portion to the environment happens to be a cherry on top. Today BRAC RHMP operates as one of BRAC’s three Green Enterprises, and produces synthesised paper products from recycled materials, such as, used papers, stalks of wheat, hay, water hyacinth, caustic soda, dye, barley, glue and cotton. These materials are gathered from various BRAC projects and branch offices, thus helping reduce the amount of waste produced by BRAC, and contributing toward employment generation for women and ‘going green’ initiatives nationwide in the process.

Creating opportunities
In addition to its committed contribution to the environment, BRAC RHMP has also been supporting the all-female employee group working at the production facility with unequivocal employment opportunities and fare wages. About 100 women are currently working at the production facility of this enterprise, located at Shombhuganj, Mymensingh, and their payments are made based on the quantity of products they put together. Hence the more products get sold in the urban market, the more income these women are able to generate. As these products are strictly handmade, more women are going to get employed at the production facility if the market demand increases. Apart from the workers, the customers belonging to the urban population group, especially the corporate offices also fall into the category of BRAC RHMP beneficiaries as they are actually able to reduce the wastage of paper by exchanging these with this enterprise, only to purchase brand new items manufactured by their own waste.

Change in goal/mission
The mission of the Recycled Handmade Paper enterprise has not changed, but rather modified and expanded. At first it was only to recycle and reuse the paper wasted by most of the corporate lines. But now it has started retailing its products at BRAC’s brand new green outlet named Kanon. An exchange offer is going on at present in which any corporate enterprise can deliver its wasted paper to RHMP to get them recycled so that these are bought back again by the same enterprise. This is playing a huge role in decreasing the wastage of paper in corporate offices and thus helping our environment in the process. In this offer, the RHMP collects the paper waste of corporate offices to modify and customise them into handmade paper or paper products as per their demand and sell it back to them. They can also place their orders from a range of products already offered by RHMP.

Future goals
The market for recycled handmade paper products is growing rapidly; hence it is more likely to be expanding in the near future. Introduction of a new, mechanised process in making the products is being planned. The mainstream paper products are going to be handmade as usual, but the now semi-mechanised production of paper is going to be mechanised to support a larger scale of production and meet the growing demand for recycled paper in Bangladesh. One of the most important goals are to make the handmade recycled paper and paper products more accessible in the urban market, thus providing more income generating opportunities for rural women.

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