Johora Akhter, excellent in the classroom and at the farm
Women's success in agriculture is nothing new. I witnessed their significant contribution while I was travelling across the country during the '80s.
According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women play a vital role in agriculture all over the world. About 70 percent of farm workers are women, 80 percent are engaged in food-producing, and 10 percent are involved in primary food processing. Nearly 60 to 90 percent of rural agricultural marketing is occupied by women. Thus two-thirds of the workforce involved in agricultural production are women.
Nowadays, there are thousands of successful women farmers across the country and many of them have become entrepreneurs and created employment opportunities for both men and women.
Johora Akhter is one such innovative woman farmer. I went to meet her at Singardighi village in Gazipur's Sreepur upazila in June this year. A school teacher by profession, Johora engaged herself in farming in 2014. Her initiatives turned into a huge horticultural orchard, which gradually extended to 14.87 acres area. She has 30 different varieties of trees and plants that include mango, jackfruit, lemon, guava and many more. Alongside doing her household chores she also earns well to ensure her family's food security and survival.
There are mostly mango trees on the front side of her orchard and each tree has a different size of mangoes. Johora said she has nearly 4,000 mango trees and hopes to sell mangoes worth around Tk 12 lakh (USD 12,631.90).
She also has some foreign mango varieties like Kiuzai and American Palmer.
Johora also cultivates lotkon (Burmese grape) and has 600 of those trees. She has a target to sell lotkon worth Tk 1.5 lakh (USD 1,579).
Lotkon is cultivated in many parts of the country as farmers are now interested in farming diversified fruits while many of them have mixed-fruit gardens.
There are 6,000 lemon trees at Johora's orchard alongside 220 Darjeeling varieties of orange trees. She also has a collection of many other fruits like papaya, banana and litchi. She is a mature farmer, who has gathered a lot of experience in a short time.
Single crop doesn't support one the way he wants, but more varieties do, Johora believes.
It is more profitable to cultivate different crops simultaneously. This is the actual way to compensate if another crop fails to produce as expected. She has learned a lot from agricultural TV programmes and YouTube.
However, financial success is not her only mission. She thinks about people and society and looks forward to ensuring nutrition security by safe food production, which is best for human health.
Seeing Johora's success many women in the region are getting involved in farming. She distributes free seedlings to the women of her area to encourage them toward agriculture.
Johora reminds me of Sultana Razia who became independent by cultivating foreign vegetables on leased land in Savar. The story of Ishwardi's Nurunnahar, who achieved the Bangladesh Government's Agricultural Important Person (AIP) honour recently, is almost the same.
She also reminds me of Sabina Yeasmin of Magura, Shahida Akhter of Faridpur, and Nayan Selina of Cox's Bazar. All of them have huge contributions to the farming sector.
Dear readers, farming is an independent occupation. The day has come to improve this profession with the assistance of climate-smart technologies. You have lots of information now, and most importantly, farmers have access to the internet.
Johora is one of the examples, who is extremely dedicated to her country, and any woman can follow in her footsteps. I am sure Bangladesh will move forward with such contributions from women farmers, which will not only boost our agricultural economy but also strengthen the farming community.
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