UCB organises agricultural entrepreneurship trainings in Manikganj, Tangail

A day-long agricultural entrepreneurship skills development training was held at Proshika Training Center in Kaitta, Manikganj on Wednesday (20 September), under the initiative of Agro-CSR Project 2023 'Voroshar Notun Janala' to provide support to the agriculture sector as part of the social responsibility of United Commercial Bank PLC (UCB) as per direction of Bangladesh Bank.

More than 230 agricultural entrepreneurs from seven upazilas of Manikganj district were present in this training, reads a press release. 

In the opening ceremony, the chief guest, UCB Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary ATM Tahmiduzzaman said, "Farmers are our life, if farmers survive, we can all survive. We are the first among the private banks to create agricultural entrepreneurship and create incentives at the doorstep of marginal farmers. 

"We are working in an effort so that farmers can produce and market their desired crops by taking loans on easy terms. That's why we named our project 'Voroshar Notun Janala'. We mainly want to instil confidence in the minds of marginal farmers. We are working towards that goal."

Rezaul Karim Siddique, presenter of Bangladesh Television's "Mati O Manush" programme and agricultural information analyst, Dr Md Khokon Hossain, district livestock officer, Md Motiur Rahman, district agriculture training officer, Kamrul Hassan Kamal, deputy chief executive of Proshika, and UCB Branch Manager Md Mostafa Kamal also spoke at the opening ceremony.

On the same day, a similar type of skill development training was held for 350 agricultural entrepreneurs from 12 upazilas of Tangail at the Buro Bangladesh Training Centre in the district. Dr Md Rana Miah, district livestock officer, Md Shafiqul Islam, additional deputy director, DAE, Tangail, Md Abdur Rashed, senior officer of District Fisheries Department, and UCB Branch Manager Nur Uddin Ahmed also spoke at the opening ceremony.

In both the training sessions in Manikganj and Tangail, the resource persons discussed the marketing, entrepreneurship management, banking, and financial aspects of agricultural enterprises, and answered the various queries of the entrepreneurs.

As per the directives of Bangladesh Bank, UCB has taken the initiative to implement the agricultural support scheme 'Voroshar Notun Janala' this year as part of its social responsibility. The aim of this project is to ensure the food security of the country, enrich nutritional quality, and promote climate-resilient sustainable agriculture.

A total of 15,000 agricultural entrepreneurs from around 500 upazilas across the country will be trained under this project. Apart from this, 50 upazilas of the country will be developed as 'model areas' for the prosperity of agriculture by providing modern machinery support to agricultural entrepreneurs.

At the same time, under this project, research initiatives have been undertaken on the development of climate-smart agricultural marketing systems to improve the food and nutritional security of vulnerable pastoralist households in Bangladesh.