‘Growing Together’ changes fortune of Mithapukur poor cultivators

RANGPUR, Feb 13: Julekha Begum (35), wife of Asadul Mia in Kafrikhal Baluapara village under Mithapukur upazila of the district had been passing her days in acute poverty even few years ago.
"It was very difficult for me to manage my family of six members with the petty amount of income of my husband who was a farmer," said Julekha.
"Earlier, we could not even eat two meals a day but now we can afford three meals a day", she said.
Julekha could manage to get rid of acute poverty with the assistance of an agriculture value chain project 'Growing Together'. Under the project she learnt to produce more crops using modern technology and earned good profit from the sale of her produce. In this way she began contributing financially to her impoverished family.
Thus she brought financial solvency to her shrinking family and became optimistic of a better future for their three children.
Like her, Halima another beneficiary of the project is also making surplus from the sale of the crops cultivated in her land and is hoping for buying goats with the profit, while her husband Mokhlesur is expecting to build a 'tin shed' house to improve his living standard.
Like them many other rural poor men and women have become able to change their fortune with the support from the project Growing Together. The programme has ushered in a new hope to the poor, ultra-poor and marginalised farmers, sources said.
For the beneficiaries of the project Growing Together means not only feeding their families but economic self- reliance as well.
The partnership project between Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO),an international development charity that combats poverty through the enduring power of volunteering and syngenta is being implemented with support from VSO's local partner Rangpur Dinajpur Rural service ( RDRS) .
The Growing Together program is a unique program co-created by VSO and Syngenta, which aims to sustainably improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers especially in Rangpur and Dinajpur region under Bangladesh and to create thriving rural communities, sources also said.
The four years of partnership combines Syngenta's agricultural expertise and technology with VSO's international development expertise and provision of volunteering opportunities for employees, sources said.
According to official sources Syngenta has a commitment to sustainability and helping smallholders to increase productivity. In its Good Growth Plan, Syngenta has set itself the highest sustainability targets to be reached by 2020 and is working closely with multiple partners to find common solutions in addressing global challenges of food security. The Growing Together program aims to increase internal awareness about the challenges of smallholders and to contribute in helping improve the community's economic and food security.
The partnership between VSO and Syngenta has been playing a vital role in changing the socio- economic condition of poor and ultra poor farmers in the north western Bangladesh by making farming more lucrative for them.
Some 10,000 marginalised, poor and ultra-poor farmers have been benefited so far through the project and 100,000 farmers are expected to be benefited by the next three years, VSO official sources added.

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