As part of the stakeholder dialogues series on food systems under the purview of the UN Food Systems Summit 2021, FAO Representation in Bangladesh (FAOBD) organized a national virtual Independent Dialogue title “Farmers’ Groups in Agriculture and Food System of Bangladesh” on 31 May 2021 in Bangladesh. The dialogue focused on issues, emerging idea and innovations related to the future food systems in Bangladesh. The dialogue was organized jointly by FAO team in Smallholder Agriculture Competitiveness Project (SACP), Missing Middle Initiative (MMI) and Hand-in-Hand Initiatives (HiHi) with supports from the Department of Agriculture Extension, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Bangladesh.

Prior to the virtual dialogue, a kobo-based structured questionnaire survey was conducted with 100 farmers representatives from 50 groups and 50 Upazilas. The survey was conducted by Upazilla Agriculture Officers under the guidance of Regional Additional Directors, Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE). The survey data consolidated in kobo platform was analyzed by SACP and formulated a keynote presentation for the dialogue.

On 31^st May, FAOBD team facilitated the virtual dialogues which was attended by 50 farmers group representatives, GoB officials (MoA and MoF) and FAOBD personnel. The dialogue was structured in three stages:

1. Keynote presentation (Survey finding)
2. Three topical discussions in groups (Breakout session)
3. Plenary (Open discussion and concluding session)