DHAKA, May 30, 2024 (BSS) - 'Self-help' initiatives appear to be godsend for women empowerment in Bangladesh's coastal region Khulna as a lot of marginalised women changed their fate through various income generating activities in this disaster-prone area.

Rima Dey witnessed success and became self-reliant by rearing duck. She has a duck farm at Garkhali Satyapir village in Tildanga union under Dacope upazila of Khulna. But natural calamities like cyclones and floods wreak havoc on her duck farm almost every year, compelling her to lose capital.
 
Rima's day labourer husband Pranab said their house is affected every year due to the erosion of the Shibsha River. Despite this adverse situation, Rima has become successful in cooperation with the government, he added.
 
Expressing her satisfaction, Rima said, "We are affected every year due to natural calamities. Saline water enters our agricultural land and duck farm. Every year, many ducks of my farm die due to intrusion of saline water. Many times, we lose capital. But we don't give up hope and become successful. We are financially solvent now. We are maintaining our family happily".
 
Many women in Dacope upazila are cultivating paddy under a 'joint cultivation system'. Most of them got success in paddy cultivation and became self-reliant.

Rahela Akter is one of the joint paddy farmers. She said at the beginning, she didn't think that the joint paddy cultivation system would change her financial condition.

But her thinking seems to be wrong as she found Honufa earning a handsome amount of money by cultivating paddy jointly within three years, she said,
 
"I and my husband along with two children work in our paddy field. Joint paddy farming is an excellent system as some of the women work jointly and earn together. Not only me, all of my stakeholders earn enough to maintain a decent livelihood thanks to the Department of Agricultural Extension," Rahela said.
 
Another paddy farmer Chitrali Das said she cultivates paddy under joint management and earns enough to run her family as her husband Rakhal Das also helps her in work.

Flood and cyclone often affect their paddy but different government assistance after the disaster helped her to recover the loss, she added.

Chitrali Das claimed that paddy farming has changed the fate of hundreds of women in the upazila.
 
Sunflower cultivation has become popular among the women farmers in Dacope upazila. Many women are choosing sunflower cultivation as it is very profitable.

Moli Begum of Garkhali Satyapir village cultivates sunflowers and established herself as a successful farmer. The widow runs her four-member family by cultivating sunflowers.
 
Moli said, "I have lost my husband 11 years ago. My three children are still students. They also help me cultivate sunflowers. I have no allegation about life as I have been maintaining a happy life without seeking help from anyone. All credit goes to sunflower cultivation."
 
Dacope Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Joy Deb Chakrabarty said it is very good news that women in the upazila have engaged themselves in various economic activities.

All kinds of cooperation from the administration are being provided to these women entrepreneurs as Upazila agriculture office has been asked to give necessary cooperation to the women farmers, he said.

"I hope Dacope upazila to be a place of successful rural women overcoming various natural calamities," the UNO added.