Marketing Communications (CMN 310)

Term Paper

Musfiqur Rahman
0630231

Allocation of content

Introducing Statements
Page 1-7
Analysis
Page 7-8
Out come
Page 9
Recommendation
Page 9-12
Conclusion
Page 12

I would like to work on the project named, Agricultural market information improvement
TCP/BGD/0065.

The objective of this project lacks communication development.

Being a student of communication science, I want to take a look on this project.
I have done some literature review of the government's agriculture & extension policy, which
Ensures to achieve some results, through these type of projects, which are not possible with out
the proper integration of communication or, a SMART communication mix.

The project that I am talking about has, put mass communications such as Radio & TV
Communication on their project out puts. But they do not have any communication wing!
The project web page (http://www.dam.gov.bd/jsp/index.jsp) has a cool out look but an uneven
welcome in interactivity. With this welcome at the beginning of the term paper I became curious of
the real fact,
“How Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) is using IMC? Why agriculture ministry is unable to
achieve the blessings of IMC?”

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 To discuss about the government’s integrated steps to develop agriculture system
of Bangladesh we need to know the Agriculture ministry’s formation a little bit.

Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

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Some documents:
Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) according to Sustainable Development Networking
Programme (SDNP, is following the following policy in order to promote agriculture:

Objectives of the National Agriculture Policy :

The overall objective of the National Agriculture Policy is to make the nation self-
sufficient in food through increasing production of all crops including cereals and
ensure a dependable food security system for all. The specific objectives of the National
Agriculture Policy are to:

• ensure a profitable and sustainable agricultural production system and raise the
purchasing power by increasing real income of the farmers;
• preserve and develop land productivity;
• reduce excessive dependence on any single crop to minimize the risk;
• increase production and supplies of more nutritious food crops and thereby
ensuring food security and improving nutritional status;
• preserve existing bio-diversity of different crops;
• take up programs for the introduction, utilization and extension of bio-
technology;
• take necessary steps to ensure environmental protection as well as
‘environment-friendly sustainable agriculture’ through increased use of organic
manure and strengthening of the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs;
• take appropriate steps to develop an efficient irrigation system and encourage
farmers in providing supplementary irrigation during drought with a view to
increasing cropping intensity and yield;
• establish agriculture as a diversified and sustainable income generating sector
through strengthening of ‘Farming System’ based agricultural production and
agro-forestry programs;
• take effective steps to ensure input supplies to the farmers at fair prices in a
competitive market and remove difficulties at the farmers’ level which have
arisen out of the privatization of input distribution system;
• develop marketing system to ensure fair prices of agricultural commodities;
• introduce an appropriate institutional system of providing credit to ensure the
availability of agricultural credit in time;
• produce and supply of agricultural commodities as required by the industrial
sector;
• Reduce imports of agricultural commodities and find out newer opportunities
for increasing exports as well;
• create opportunities for establishing agro-processing and agro-based industries;
• protect interests of the small, marginal and tenant farmers;
• Update the agricultural system in the light of the Agreement on Agriculture
under WTO, SAFTA and other international treaties by protecting the national
interests; and develop contingency management system to combat natural
disasters.

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Crop Production Policy :

Although the intensification of food grain production, especially rice-based production

system is apparently profitable from the farmers’ point of view, this approach has
appeared to be harmful in protecting the land productivity. At present, rice covers about
75 percent of the cultivated land in Bangladesh. Area coverage by other crops are as
follows: pulses (4.64%), wheat (3.92%), oilseeds (3.77%), jute (3.71%), sugarcane
(1.23%), potato (1.11%), fruits (0.84%) and vegetables (1.39%). The production system
dominated by a single crop (i.e. rice) is neither scientific nor acceptable from the
economic point of view. It is, therefore, necessary to increase the cultivation and
production of other crops. However, considering the increasing demand for food grains
and with a view to ensuring food security, production of rice will continue to get
priority in the food grain production programs. In order to increase rice production,
supportive programs will be taken to raise per hectare yield through the use of modern
technology and improved cultural practices along with the increased use of HYV seeds.

In Bangladesh, only 4.14 percent of net cultivable land remains as current fallow which
means that there is hardly any scope for increasing cultivable land. Currently, cropping
intensity is around 185 percent. Thus, the only possible option for increasing
agricultural production is to increase both the cropping intensity and yields
simultaneously. In this respect, policies adopted by the government are to:

• Take supportive programs for inter-cropping in a field instead of single

cropping; and;
• take appropriate measures in reducing the gap between potential yield and
farmers’ realized yield of different crops to raise the present level of production
significantly.

Crop diversification is one of the major component of crop production policy. For the
overall development of crop sector, special emphasis will be given to crop
diversification program under the crop production policy. The government policies in
this respect are as follows:

• Area under wheat has meanwhile reached at 0.8 million hectare. Given the
potential for expanding wheat acreage, efforts will continue to encourage
farmers to grow more wheat.
• The production of maize has shown prospective results in last two years. Maize
has also gained popularity as human food side by side with the poultry feed.
Public sector procurement of maize has been introduced like rice and wheat in
order to encourage farmers in maize cultivation. The efforts for increasing area
and production of maize will be strengthened.
• The program for increasing area and production of other crops, e.g., potato,
pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits and spices will gradually be extended under
the crop diversification program.

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 • Production of different cash crops including jute, cotton will be increased and
efforts will be made to expand their multiple uses.
• Special development programs will be taken with a view to increasing
production of potential crops suitable for the coastal areas and the hill tracts.

As a matter of fact, increased crop production depends on good quality seeds,

efficient irrigation management, use of balanced fertilizers and availability of credit in
time. In accordance with the free market economy, the important task of agricultural
input distribution has largely been shifted to the private sector. Despite its beneficial
effects in general, the privatization process has given rise to considerable inefficiency in
some cases, such as, marketing and distribution of minor irrigation equipment and
fertilizers. It is alleged that the privatization process has also been accompanied by non-
availability, price rise, smuggling and quality degradation of fertilizers. Under this
situation the government will seek to:

• establish and consolidate the distribution system for irrigation equipment,

fertilizers, seeds and credit in the light of farmers’ need; and
• ensure responsibility and accountability of the private sector through
strengthening of the relevant legal framework and its enforcement.

The production of crops, especially aman crop is heavily damaged every year due to the
inadequate soil moisture regime prevailing in drought affected areas. To combat this
situation government has adopted the following policies:

• Supplementary irrigation will be ensured in severe and extremely severe drought

affected areas.
• Location specific (including hill tracts) suitable crops will be identified with
respect to technological and economic parameters and appropriate strategies will
be pursued for cultivating those crops.
• Measures will be taken to minimize post-harvest losses by introducing
appropriate technologies.

Since agricultural production is very expensive and risky, often it is not possible for the
farmers to grow crops profitably at the individual level due to the shortage of required
labor and capital. Therefore, government will encourage the formation of self-motivated
cooperatives for producing and marketing agricultural commodities which should ideally
succeed in mobilizing adequate resources (including labor and capital) for more
production, income and equity.

Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP)

E-17 Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh.

Agriculture Extension:

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Agriculture extension is one of the main components of the National Agriculture Policy.
There is a need for strengthening agricultural extension service for ensuring proper use
of agricultural land and improving land productivity. The Department of Agricultural
Extension (DAE) has got the responsibility of providing information on appropriate
technologies to the farmers; educating the farmers through proper advice and training;
and, thereby motivating the farmers to adopt improved technologies. To strengthen the
above mentioned extension services, following steps will be taken:

• The New Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP) is currently under

implementation with the objective of promoting sustainable technology for a
gradual development of the improved crop production system. The
implementation of NAEP will be reinforced through necessary monitoring.
• Agricultural research-extension linkage will be further strengthened with a view
to transferring new technologies to the farmers. Private sector entrepreneurs,
NGOs and farmers will also be involved in strengthening this linkage.

The present agricultural extension set-up is sufficiently broad-based and bolstered by

efficient manpower. The following measures will be taken to make this organization
more efficient and effective:

• DAE will prepare feasible and compatible programs for the proper use of
cultivable land on the basis of demand for different crops and their production
targets.
• DAE will regularly monitor the supply and availability of quality seeds,
fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides, etc. in order to facilitate the cultivation of
different crops. Besides, DAE will prepare an anticipated report on the
increase/decrease of crop-wise demand for different inputs and apprise the
authorities at the national level.
• The use of public mass media i.e. radio, television, newspaper, etc. will be
increased for rapid extension of agricultural technologies. In this connection
Agriculture Information Service will be strengthened.
• Proper use of Annual Development Plan allocations to local government will be
ensured. Block-wise establishment of demonstration farms, which is already in
practice, will be strengthened. Suitable crops, compatible with the overall
conditions of the farms, will be determined by DAE. Visits to demonstration
farms and interaction with the farmers by the extension workers at an important
time of the respective cropping season will be further strengthened.
• To facilitate rapid transfer of agricultural production technologies, multiple
extension approaches such as agricultural fair, field day, farmers’ rally, etc. will
be widely practiced.
• Agriculture extension service will be strengthened to encourage self-motivated
cooperative system of production.

http://www.sdnbd.org/sdi/issues/agriculture/national-policy/agriculture_extension.htm

NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SYSTEM – AN OVERVIEW

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The Department of Agricultural Extension’s mission is to provide efficient and effective
need based extension services to all categories of farmers, to enable them to optimize
their use of resources, in order to promote sustainable agricultural and socioeconomic
development.

The major role of agricultural extension is to disseminate technology to the intended

user and induce behavioral change towards adoption of technology. The adoption of
improved farming practices would increase production and maintain a balance with
demand for increased food production.

On the assumption of population increase in Bangladesh, the food demand by 2020 is

expected to increase about 2 times. Sustainable agricultural production on long term
basis and continuation of consumption trends to meet this demand will be a serious
challenge for the extension service.

ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE EXTENSION

As an agency within the Ministry of Agriculture, the overall purpose of the Department
of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is the effective implementation of government policy.
There are relevant policies specific to the agricultural sector as well as cross cutting
commitments such as those concerning environmental management, social
development or gender.
DAE’s revised extension approach (REA) specifically embraces the Department’s
Mission within the context of the New Agricultural Extension Policy (NAEP).
The principles of the NAEP have been incorporated into the DAE Mission Statement
and the Revised Extension Approach (REA). They provide a framework for this
Strategic Plan which presents a structure of objectives designed to further
implementation of the NAEP.

Goal of NAEP is :

“Encourage the various partners and agencies within the national agricultural
extension system to provide efficient and effective services which complement and
reinforce each other, in an effort to increase the efficiency and productivity of
agriculture in Bangladesh”
COUNTRY PAPER
Paper prepared for Regional Workshop on Operationalizing Reforms in Agricultural
Extension in South Asia, to be held on 6 -8 February, 2003 at New Delhi, India.

During the past decade, one of the global hallmarks of the ICT revolution has
been to leverage its potential in achieving good governance and deepening democracy.
The strategic tool for this is e-governance, which may be defined as the public sector's
use of ICT with the aim of improving information and service delivery, encouraging
citizen participation in the decision-making process and making government more
accountable, transparent and effective.

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Given the reality of Bangladesh, where a majority of the population is primary producers,
e-governance is a solution to enhance-access to information for all stakeholders and
thereby contributes to a better agriculture society. In contrast to the subsistence based
farming about a mere decade back, agriculture, in Bangladesh, is now gradually
becoming commercialized and as such knowledge intensive.

With this service delivery sector, in the status quo, roping in more that 50% of the
nation's labor force and contributing around 25% to the GDP, the uplift of Bangladesh
Agriculture, is expected to have considerable positive repercussions in terms of higher
economic gain and constitute a substantial step towards poverty reduction- one of our
MDGs.
e-focus the Weekly e-Governance &
Development Insights(UNDP)Issue 2, Volume 1, 21 September 2007

However, the major obstacle for the sector to becoming knowledge intensive is the
knowledge gap that exists. Such gap results because the existing system fails to provide
the right kind of information at the right time in the right way. Tough some steps has been
taken to establish the wind of change in the practical fields of agriculture development,
the sector is not getting the expected feedback. As a result reform is needed.

Now, I would like to point to some lick age of the agriculture extension project with the
help of the above presented documents provided by different organisms of the MOA.

1 Who are the stakeholders? Has GIS been introduced to all level of stakeholders?

To answer the question, we need to go through a Communication based assessment of the

stake holders. But that is not done yet in any published document of the ministry of
agriculture. So the stake holders are not yet being understood to design strategic branding
of different services provided by the ministry and it’s organisms.
By promoting proper PR activities, the ministry and the government can achieve
sustainable e-governance in this Agriculture sector.
Yes GIS has been introduced.

2 These goals have no communication plan! How the messages have been
disseminated?

The department of agriculture extension (DAE) is responsible for dissemination of public

messages in the mass media. E.g. Radio & TV. To approach to any mass audience, it is
required that, the message to be delivered should be done through communication
experts. The brand image of this department will emphasize this promotion a little bit
more. PR has the power to bring change in the culture. So, by changing cultural believes
of the stake holders, these goals can be achieved easily.

3 How? Isn’t proper communication approach, the best solution for these goals?
CBA is missing.

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To disseminate the public data, there should be proper strategy to follow. But there was
no strategy found in the data base of agriculture ministry.

Out Come

At this pGovernment is week in communications and it also lacks proper knowledhe

about the power & possibility of scientific communication.

Recommendations

Factors influencing the communications mix

There are at least 5 major influences on what makes a given mix of promotional techniques
appropriate.

These are:

• The nature of the market

• The nature of the product
• The stage in the product life cycle
• Price and the funds available for promotional activities.

http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/004/W3240E/W3240E13.htm

An organisation's target audience greatly influences the form of communication to be

used to disseminate messages. Where a market is comprised of relatively few buyers, in
reasonable proximity to one another, then personal selling may prove efficient as well as
effective. On the other hand, large and un-identified markets are perhaps unsuitable for personal
selling because the costs-per-contact will be high. The customer type also has an impact. A target
market made up of industrial purchasers, wholesalers or retailers is more likely to be served by
organisations which employ personal selling than is a market of consumers. Human relation or,
public relation is very much important at this level of policy planning. The goal might be directed
towards the direction of social marketing.

Another important consideration is, The State of the prospective customer's knowledge
and preferences with respect to the product or service. The two tasks are quite different in nature
and may require the use of differing forms of communication. CBA might be a solution.

The key questions at this point are:

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 Message - Is the right message being communicated?

Media - Is the right medium or media being employed?

Target - Is the target being reached by the communication?

Source - Is the source of the information credible with the target audience?

In summary, what needs to be recognised is that it is unlikely that all of the steps in the
communication process can be accomplished by a single advertisement or advertising campaign.
It should also be recognised that as promotion has a number of long-term goals, so it’s
performance cannot be measured simply in terms of sales volumes.

Aaker and Myers10 say that:

“Advertising objectives, like organisational objectives, should be operational. They should be

effective criteria for decision making and should provide standards with which results can be
compared. Furthermore, they should be effective communication tools, providing a line
between strategic and tactical decisions.”

An extensive review of this empirical evidence may be found in E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations,
The Free Press 3rd edition, 1983.

Public relations

& Development:

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Publicity and public relations are not one and the same thing. Organisations often seek publicity,
i.e. to disseminate newsworthy items of information about itself, its products/services or about its
personnel through the media but does not pay to do so as in the case of advertising. Instead, the
organisation hopes that the item is sufficiently newsworthy to appear in an editorial feature, in a
newspaper or magazine, or that a radio and/or television station will want to interview an official
of the organisation about the item.

Publicity can be a highly effective communication tool, since ‘news’ is often perceived by the
target group to have greater authenticity and credibility than ‘advertising’. Moreover, it can
penetrate the defences of individuals who intentionally ignore advertising and the overtures of
sales personnel. The main disadvantage of publicity is that the organisation has relatively little
control over it.

The ‘public’ referred to in this definition is any group having an actual or potential
interest in, or impact upon, an organisation's prospects of achieving its goals. Such publics would
be:

The community: An organisation needs to be accepted by the local community. To this end, a
community relations programme should be established. Such a programme should devise ways
for the organisation to become involved in community activities. A public relations programme
can give an organisation a ‘personality’ and, hopefully, one which the local community likes.

Consumers: Public relations should be used to nurture a positive image of the organisation and
its products and services, a belief in its intrinsic fairness in dealings with customers and the
perception that the organisation values loyal customers.

Other channel members: Wherever the organisation is placed within the marketing channel (as
a grower, processor, wholesaler, retailer etc.) it should take cognisance of the need to develop
and maintain positive relations with its partners within the marketing system. The public
relations programme should make them feel like partners, e.g. by making them privy to
privileged information about the organisation's products, promotional programmes, marketing
plans, future developments and/or policies.

Opinion leaders: Pressure groups and trade associations are examples of groups which can
influence both public and government opinion and therefore should be a target for the
organisation's public relations activities Where there is potential conflict between the interests of
these groups and those of the organisation it is vital that there remains a dialogue between them
so that factual information, rather than rumours, is communicated. In many cases, an effective
public relations programme can help avoid conflicts from arising. It can do so by projecting a
corporate image of a caring, responsible and responsive organisation. For its part, the
organisation must seek to understand the position taken by pressure groups on particular issues.

The Seeds Of Success By Communicating With The Market

“Up until a few years ago, the Seed Co-op was production driven”, admitted the Marketing
Manager of The Seed Company of Zimbabwe Limited. He was referring to a situation where the
member growers decided how much of each crop they wanted to grow and then asked the Seed
Co-op to sell what they were willing to produce. The Marketing Manager went on to say that the
situation had changed and members had become, “…very much market-led.” He meant that
members had come to understand the need to produce according to customer needs. The Seed
Co-op made itself aware of customer needs through marketing communications.
Zimbabwe's Seed Co-op formerly enjoyed a monopoly and did not see the need to advertise.
This changed with the introduction of market reforms that opened the seed supply business to
competition. The Seed Co-op set its communication objectives as:
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 • To make groups, in addition to farmers, understand the role which the Seed Co-op played in
the country's agriculture. These groups were to include: government, financial institutions and
manufacturers.
• To create awareness that the Seed Co-op sold more than maize seed,
• To communicate the importance of certified seed, and
• To make potential customers aware of newly introduced seed varieties.
The seed Co-op's campaign was extensive, and costly. It covered:
• Rural radio advertising,
• Rural bus panels,
• Posters with calendars; these showed the various agro-regions of the country and their
recommended crops,
• Press advertising in both commercial and peasant farmer publications;
• Rural cinema;
• Sponsorship of televised weather reports, and
• Television advertising.
A post-evaluation of the impact of the advertising campaign was undertaken and the Seed Co-
op pronounced itself satisfied by the high level of recall of its promotional theme, “War Against
Hunger”.
The Seed Co-op employed both sales and extension personnel but the two were seen to have
distinct roles. In the words of Mr. de Woronin, “A different personality and approach is needed
for selling, as opposed to extension work, which we at Seed Co-op have learnt the hard way.
Extension people cannot necessarily sell, and vice versa.”
Public relations also figured strongly in the Seed Co-op of Zimbabwe's marketing
communications programme. The organisation became very active in both national and
provincial trade fairs and in local field days, in a bid to establish sound working relations with
farmers.

Agricultural and food marketing management, FAO Corporate Document

Repository.(Chapter 10)

The methods employed by public relations professionals include:

• Sponsorship
• In-house publications
• Community projects
• Press releases
• Video films
• Training courses,
• Annual reports.

It will be most effective, and controllable, when it has specific objectives, with respect to specific
publics, and when it is coordinated with the forms of marketing communication.

Finally

For achieving the goal of successful e-governance, I would like to present:

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Recommendations from the World Congress on Communication for Development:

Based on the arguments, in order to make much more significant progress on the very
difficult development challenges that developing world face we recommend that policy
makers and founders do the following:

1. Overall national development policies should include specific communication for

development
components.
2. Development organisations should include communication for development as a
central element
at the inception of programmes.
3. Strengthen the communication for development capacity within countries and
organisations at
all levels. This includes: people in their communities; communication for development
specialists
and other staff including through the further development of training courses and
academic
programmes.
4. Expand the level of financial investment to ensure adequate, coordinated, financing
of the core
elements of communication for development as outlined under Strategic Requirements
above.
This includes budget line[s] for development communication.
5. Adoption and implement of policies and legislation that provide an enabling
environment for
communication for development – including free and pluralistic media, the right to
information
and to communicate.
6. Development communication programmes should be required to identify and include
appropriate monitoring and evaluation indicators and methodologies throughout the
process
7. Strengthen partnerships and networks at international, national and local levels to
advance
communication for development and improve development outcomes
8. Move towards a rights based approach to communication for development
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTDEVCOMMENG/Resources/RomeConsensus0
7.
pdf

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