Sunday, April 28, 2024
The economy of Bangladesh is directly and indirectly dependent on agriculture since the country is an agricultural one. The contribution of agriculture to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is about 14 per cent. While the contribution of women along with men to the economy, especially in the rural economy, is increasing.
Experts said in almost every village of the country, women are conducting activities on their own initiative and contributing to the economy. Direct involvement of women to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) is essential.
According to statistics, women are a significant part of the total labour force. Of them 68 per cent of the female labour force is engaged in agriculture, including the process of pre-sowing of crops, harvesting, processing, marketing and outdoor cultivation of crops and vegetables, drying and processing of fish, cattle rearing and poultry farming, reports BSS.
Over the past few decades, millions of new workers have been added to the country’s economic activities and over half of them are women. Most of them are working in the agriculture sector and running agro business.
Prof Md Matiur Rahman of Fisheries Biology and Genetics Department of Bangladesh Agricultural University said, “Woman entrepreneurs are created when a woman thinks about her own employment and tries to set up a business by herself without doing any job or being under anyone. Diverse agriculture production has increased in the country due to the involvement of women entrepreneurs in agriculture” he added.
Woman entrepreneur Sahida Khanam of Mymensingh, who planted over 1,000 dragon Fruit saplings on her 440 square feet of rooftop space, said in the last season she produced 280 kgs of dragon fruit and sold them to the market. Besides, more than 30 species of leafy vegetables, 20 species of flowering plants, avocados, dates, litchis and mango and lemon trees in her garden.
Sahida herself takes care of these trees. She produces dragon fruit using organic fertilisers. She said she has provided dragon fruit seedlings to 500-1000 small and large hobby gardeners in different parts of the country through courier services.
Deputy Director of Mymensingh District Agriculture Office Dr Nasima AktanBanu said, “I visited the rooftop garden of dragon fruit of Sahida Khanam. It will work as inspiration to others.”
Nurunnahar of Chalimpur union of Ishradi upazila is a successful agro entrepreneur. She encouraged women of her area in agriculture by intensive vegetable, fruit, poultry and cow rearing.
In 2011, she received the Bangabandhu National Agriculture Bronze Medal as the best woman farmer of the country. In 2016, she got the Bangabandhu National Agriculture Gold Medal and in 2017, she bagged the Machranga Award for her contribution to agriculture.
Bangladesh Agricultural University Prof Matiur said, “We can see how women farmers have made a revolution in agriculture even during the Corona pandemic. But the progress for women is never easy for a developing country like ours. However, the number of women entrepreneurs in the country is gradually increasing after many ups and downs.”
Entrepreneur Sahida said women want to do something. But their biggest problem is the financial crisis. Most of the cases, banks or financial institutions don’t want to provide agriculture loans to women due to collateral complexity. “Government credit system should be simplified for women agro entrepreneurs,” Sahida said.
Assistant Professor Dr Mahbub Mumtaz Social Work Department of Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib University of Science and Technology said no economic plan can ever be succeeded by excluding or neglecting the women of any country. The participation of women as entrepreneurs in agriculture is more important to achieve SDGs by 2030, he added.
Gender expert and Associate Professor of Economics Department of Jahangirnagar University Sharmind Nilormi said women’s contribution to agriculture, poultry farming, tea gardening in Sylhet-Chittagong-Panchagarh and shrimp farming in the southern region is increasing. Women are also the main driving force of the agricultural sub-sector.
