A community leader in Baliakandi inspires women empowerment in agriculture: Promila Rani Mondol
- From
-
Published on
03.04.24
- Impact Area

Thirty-three-year-old Promila Rani Mondol lives in Baliakandi Upazila in Bangladesh with her husband, four daughters, and mother-in-law. The family’s main source of livelihood is agriculture. Promila has become a successful machinery solution provider (MSP), under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia–Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA). She and her husband are the main earning members of the family.
In Rajbari district, around 100 miles away from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, agriculture is the primary livelihood for the community. Farmers engage in crop cultivation across three different seasons, focusing on crops such as rice, wheat, maize, jute, mustard, spices, and vegetables. In 2014, Promila’s family had barely two acres of cultivable land, and her husband was the sole breadwinner. Their average monthly income was US $91, which made it challenging to cover everyday expenses. To increase their family income, she began assisting her husband in crop production activities by planting seeds of jute, maize, wheat, mustard, and spice crops.
Related news
-
World Food Day 16 October: A Hungry World Knows No Borders
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)16.10.25-
Food security
-
Poverty reduction, livelihoods & jobs
When crops fail, people move not by choice, but by necessity. As families are displaced…
Read more -
-
Maisha Makutano, Kenya’s new edutainment series, features ILRI’s gender and livestock research
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)12.10.25-
Gender equality, youth & social inclusion
When researchers from the gender team at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) met t…
Read more -
-
Closing Gender Gaps for Resilient Agrifood Systems
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)12.10.25-
Gender equality, youth & social inclusion
As the world marks the 2025 International day of Rural Women and approaches the International…
Read more -