Impact of a livelihood promotion program on income generation and food consumption among ultra-poor households in rural Bangladesh

Background Bangladesh has achieved notable economic progress in recent decades while economic inequality increased. Special attention is warranted on the ultra-poor population of the country. An 18 month-long economic development program, designed based on an ultra-poor graduation approach, was implemented to alleviate poverty and improve child nutrition in rural Bangladesh. Objective The study examined the impact of livelihood components of an economic development program on outcomes related to poultry/crop production, consumption, and income generation among the ultra-poor throughout quarterly follow-ups. Methods This secondary data analysis used the monitoring records of 2960 poor or ultra-poor households receiving assets of (1) 9-26 ducks (n = 2125), (2) 11 chickens (n = 872), and/or (3) vegetable seeds (n = 2407). Data measuring the production of assets, income generation, and consumption of assets were collected quarterly throughout 2019. To examine a one-year-long trend in participation, production, income generation, and consumption of assets, a one-way analysis of variance was conducted across the follow-ups. Additional analyses of annual income and consumption comparing duck and chicken groups were performed using linear regression models. Results The number of poultry assets per household decreased between the April- June and July-Sep follow-ups, while consumption of poultry and vegetable assets increased during the monsoon season (p < 0.001 for all). The vegetable production reflected seasonal fluctuations, where the lowest production and income were reported during the monsoon and pre-monsoon seasons. We observed increasing voluntary adoption of poultry farming among the non-asset group for both duck and chicken over the follow-ups (p < 0.001 for all). The households provided with duck assets gained a greater mean annual income compared to the households provided with chicken assets. Conclusions Our findings highlight opportunities for strengthening the ultra-poor graduation approach on livelihood promotion in future scale-up in rural Bangladesh.