Experts: Online platforms might help women agricultural entrepreneurs

Image collected
Regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic adversely affecting women farmers and entrepreneurs in rural agro-economies, online platforms will come to their rescue, experts said at a webinar on Monday.

They also urged the federal government to supply training to those women, specifically for selling their produce in e-commerce platforms.

The tips were made at a webinar titled "Rural Women Agricultural Entrepreneurs and Covid-19: HELPFUL INFORMATION”, that was jointly organized by ActionAid Bangladesh and Market Development Foundation (MDF).

As women are lagging behind to use technology, they are facing challenges in marketing their products during the pandemic, said Prof Mohammad Jahangir Alam, of the Department of Agricultural Business and Marketing  at Bangladesh Agricultural University.

“Compared to 2004, the worthiness addition in agriculture has increased 4 to 5 times. We are making more but are also having problems in marketing. Quite often, women entrepreneurs don't get some of the prices as the negotiation power of women is low. Besides, financing remains a significant challenge for them aswell,” he further said.

Anik Asad, president of MDF and Country Director of international NGO Heks/Eper said: “Our mindset is not ready to see women as entrepreneurs. Many are discouraged to see women as entrepreneurs for social reasons. Besides, women face problems in getting loans and there are problems in accessing the marketplace due to insufficient training and infrastructural constraints.”

“The Department of Agricultural Marketing is working to create its online marketplace where women will also be trained. Work is underway to create farmers' markets in 64 districts of the united states where farmers can market their produce directly,” said Md Yusuf, director general of the Department of Agricultural Marketing.

“Initiatives are also taken to launch marketing postal services. Farmers Marketing Group was already setup and work is underway to implement its pricing policy. To become successful, we need to coordinate with the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) through the formulation of action plans,” he added.

AK Osman Haruni, senior policy advisor at the Embassy of holland in Bangladesh, also emphasized overcoming the challenges for rural women entrepreneurs. 

He also urged to boost the capacity of the supply system to make online marketing successful for them.

One particular  project, Making Market Work for Women (MMWW) has recently taken steps to handle product production and marketing challenges, including allocating space for women available in the market, and establishing collection points.

Farah Kabir, country director, ActionAid Bangladesh, said: “Covid-19 has displayed us that food security is vital and in addition that women agri-entrepreneurs must be supported and encouraged.”

Through e-commerce platforms, it is a big chance of women to determine themselves as agricultural entrepreneurs amid the pandemic, mentioned Farzana Khan, general manager of SME Foundation.

Based on the ActionAid Bangladesh, through the MMWW project, 22 women-friendly markets have already been set up up to now and 67 community-based collection points have already been set up to provide the products.

A survey conducted by ActionAid Bangladesh found that 85% farmers beneath the MMWW project could actually sell their product at a fair price in this pandemic. 
Source: https://www.dhakatribune.com

Tags :

Share this news on:

Previous Story

Trending Topics

Archive