Women play a major role in Bangladesh's agricultural production and post-harvest work but remain largely cut off from wider markets, said Tasnuva Zaman, national gender specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Bangladesh.
She was speaking at a discussion on “Green Roots Women's Farm Labs”, organised by the FAO, at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council in Dhaka today.
The FAO's Green Roots Women's Farm Labs initiative is underway from this year, helping rural women-led green micro-enterprises build business, technology, financial, and partnership capacities.
Zaman described a clear division of labour between men and women in the project area, with women mainly handling seed preparation, seedling care, planting, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest processing, and storage.
Beyond field crops, they also manage poultry and livestock -- chickens, ducks, goats, and cows -- and lead home-based agricultural production.
While men also take part in farm work, certain tasks are seen as exclusively theirs, she said, citing the purchase of fertiliser, pesticides, seeds, and equipment.
Additionally, men maintain relationships with traders, negotiate with buyers, and transport produce to wholesale markets. For larger investments, they generally decide the amount and its purpose, Zaman said.
She identified restricted mobility as a major constraint on women's participation in business, noting that social norms often limit women from visiting markets or dealing directly with male traders and service providers outside their families.
As a result, women have little scope to sell products directly or build independent income streams. Even when they do sell goods, they must report the earnings to their partners, she added.
Dia Sanou, deputy representative of FAO, said rural women have lacked adequate access to the support needed to grow their businesses.
Structural barriers continue to limit women-led microbusinesses' access to services, finance, technology, markets, and other support, he said.
Rita Bramma, president of Sara Bangla Krishak Society, said farmer development requires more than higher production and that farmers must also be organised and linked to markets to strengthen their livelihoods.
