DHAKA, March 26, 2024 (BSS) - 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 percent. While the contribution of women along with men to the economy, especially in 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 statistic,  women are a significant part of the total labor force. Of them 68 percent of the female labor 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.

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 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 that in the last season she produced 280 kgs of dragon fruit and sold 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 take care of these trees. She produces dragon fruit using organic fertilizers. She said that she has provided dragon fruit seedlings to 500-1000small 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 works 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 financial
crisis. Most of the cases, bank or financial institutions don’t want to provide agriculture loan to women due to collateral complexity. “Government credit system should be simplified for women agro entrepreneurs,” Sahida said.

Assistant Professor Dr. Mahbub Mumtaz of 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 the 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 that women’s contribution to agriculture, poultry farming, tea gardening in Sylhet-Chittagong-Panchgarh and shrimp farming in the southern region is increasing. Women
are also the main driving force of the agricultural sub-sector.