The government has set out to create 20,000 agricultural entrepreneurs across Bangladesh, 60 per cent of them women and 40 per cent men, to expand agro-processing and exports, BSS reports. The work is run in 208 upazilas of all 64 districts under the Department of Agricultural Marketing's (DAM) Program on Agricultural and Rural Transformation for Nutrition, Entrepreneurship and Resilience in Bangladesh (PARTNER). Entrepreneurs must be between 18 and 35.
Entrepreneurs are being developed in farming, agro-processing, seed, nurseries, mushrooms, vermicompost, jute goods and dairy products. Value chain promotional bodies are also to be formed for five products: potatoes, mangoes, jackfruit, tomatoes and aromatic rice; project officials say the policy for them has been approved by the ministry.
Trained entrepreneurs will receive matching grants in the form of household-scale food-processing equipment, with the project paying 70 per cent of the cost and the entrepreneur 30 per cent.
Dr Muhammad Abdullah Al Faruk, agency programme director of the PARTNER-DAM component, told BSS that 6,875 people have been trained so far and the target this year is about 7,000. After training, entrepreneurs receive incubation support to remove the obstacles to running their businesses. Market actors' business schools are being set up around the main product of each area: 767 so far, 227 of them for potatoes, with 335 more planned this year. They bring farmers, traders, cold-store owners and transporters into one structure.
Tamima Akter Nancy of Sarkarpara village in Piruzali union, Gazipur Sadar, took the department's 12-day training and now makes jam, jelly, pickles and jackfruit and fish chips for local markets. With the district agricultural marketing officer's help she obtained a trade licence and health certificate, and her business, Nancy Agro and Food, employs four people.
Abul Kalam Azad, the project's coordinator, told BSS the scheme can make farming a modern and respected profession. The report is from BSS in Dhaka.
Photo: Azimronnie / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); a floating market of seasonal fruit including jackfruit
Source: BSS
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