A community leader in Baliakandi inspires women empowerment in agriculture: Promila Rani Mondol

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.