KOINONIA's goal is to support mar-ginalised and vulnerable people in Bangladesh, regardless of their caste, creed or origin. The focus of the work is on strengthening the empowerment and self-help capaci-ties of disadvantaged people in Bangladesh to

Overview of the project region: The project area comprises the five (5) Union Parishads: Saghata, Jumarbari, Ghuridaho, Kachua and Kamalarpara, which are located in the SaghataUpazila. SaghataUpazila belongs to Gaibandha District of Rangpur Division[1] (northern Bangladesh) and is bordered by the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers. The region is highly dependent on agriculture. The soils in the project region are ideal for growing the most important crops such as paddy rice, wheat, maize, jute, sugarcane, potatoes, bananas and pulses. Rice is the main crop in the region. The local climate is significantly influenced by the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers. The life of the people in Bangladesh is determined by the monsoon and the dry season. In the so-called "southwest monsoon season", which normally occurs from June to October, there is heavy rainfall and high humidity with temperatures of up to 38 degrees Celsius. The dry season begins in November and ends in April. During the winter (December to February), temperatures drop to between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius. The low temperatures, often coupled with heavy fog, are perceived by the population as cold spells (mainly in December and January) and last for up to two weeks.

Rice cultivation is of crucial importance for agriculture in Bangladesh and plays a central role in food security. There are three main rice growing seasons. Boro (December to April) is the highest yielding growing season (average yield: 3,000 kg per hectare) and falls in the dry season. The Aus season (June to October) falls in the monsoon season and is the second most important growing season. The Amon season (July to December) is the rice growing season during the rainy season and also contributes to the supply of rice (average yield: 2,000 kg per hectare), but is not as important in terms of production as the Boro and Aus seasons.

In vegetable cultivation, there is the Rabi season (November to April) and the Kharip season (May to October). The Rabi season is the main vegetable season and almost coincides with the Boro season. Temperatures in the dry season are moderate and provide favourable growing conditions for many vegetables. The Kharipseason coincides with the monsoon season. Climate change, exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon, is changing the weather patterns and thus the characteristics of the growing seasons. Natural disasters such as flash floods, floods, drought-like conditions or cold waves have also occurred more frequently in the project region in recent years, destroying the target group's harvests, among other things. The target group consists mainly of small farmers who practise subsistence farming. They sell crop surpluses directly to the surrounding markets without any further value-added steps.

Food insecurity was identified as the main problem. The quantity, quality (nutritional value) and access to food have deteriorated rapidly in recent years. Currently, 57% of the population in the project region have a Food Consumption Score (FCS = indicator for food security and a balanced diet) in the borderline range (21.5 to 35 points), 31% have a poor FCS(0-21) points.

[1] Bangladesh is administratively structured as follows (from the largest level to the smallest): Division, District, Upazila and Union Parishads.