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Bangladesh Rural Development Academy and IRRI train women farmers to be seed entrepreneurs

The Rural Development Academy (RDA)-Bogura in Bangladesh and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) organized a workshop that strengthens women farmers’ knowledge on proper seed certification guidelines and seed quality control issues.  Thirty women-led farmers groups attended the seed quality control and marketing workshop in Narchi Village, Shahjahanpur sub-district on 08 November 2021.

The workshop is an initiative under OneRice, a unified rice breeding strategy to develop and deliver better rice varieties faster to the farmers in Africa and Asia, jointly implemented by RDA and IRRI, in the Bogura, Joypurhat, and Sirajgonj Districts.

OneRice aims to identify the needs of farmers in South Asia and Africa in terms of on-farm testing, advancement from on-farm trials towards dissemination, and best-performing varieties. The identified varieties are recommended to the stakeholders of the seed chain for promoting and facilitating the availability of appropriate seeds through collaborations and capacity building.

In 2021, the IRRI-Bangladesh Seed System Team in collaboration with its partners conducted training programs on seed quality control and marketing for 11 women-led farmers’ groups or a total of 330 women farmers in nine districts.

Dr. Abdullah Al Mamun, director of the Social Science Division at RDA and IRRI Senior Seed System Specialist Muhammad Ashraful Habib attended the training in Narchi Village. Mr. Hasan Imam, Bogura District Seed Certification Officer of the Seed Certification Agency conducted the training as a recourse person. The program was moderated by Md. Mozaharul Haque, agronomist at RDA-Bogura.