UCB's 'Voroshar Notun Janala' Initiative elevates agricultural entrepreneurship in Madaripur, Shariatpur

United Commercial Bank PLC (UCB) organized a day-long agricultural entrepreneurship skills development training program on 24 September 2023. 

The event took place concurrently at the Madaripur Legal Aid Association Training Center in Madaripur and the Municipality Auditorium in Shariatpur.

Under the banner of the Agro-CSR Project 2023, named 'Voroshar Notun Janala,' this initiative aims to provide crucial support to the country's agriculture sector, aligning with the directives of Bangladesh Bank and underscoring UCB's commitment to social responsibility, reads a press release.

More than 130 agricultural entrepreneurs from 4 upazilas of Madaripur district were present in this training.

In the opening ceremony, the chief guest, Deputy Managing Director and Company Secretary of United Commercial Bank PLC, ATM Tahmiduzzaman FCS said, the country's youth and farmers should be focused on developing them as entrepreneurs. If patronage is created in the making of large-scale entrepreneurship in the poultry industry and fish farming, besides providing nutrition, large-scale employment opportunities will be created at the rural level."

He further added, If the agricultural entrepreneur is successful, poverty will be eradicated, and on the other hand, the national economy will be established on a solid foundation. For this, it is necessary to create entrepreneurs, develop them and increase their capacity. 

As per the press release, "A large part of our work is imparting training, exposure to new technologies, capacity building for technology adoption, and product diversification. Those are very important for entrepreneurs. Because our small entrepreneurs don't have the theoretical knowledge or they don't want to take that kind of risk. We want to stand by UCB agricultural entrepreneurs and we want to help them", told Tahmiduzzaman.

According to a press release, Rezaul Karim Siddique, presenter of Bangladesh Television's "Mati O Manush" program and agricultural information analyst, Sadar Upazila Fisheries Officer Tapan Majumdar, Agriculture Officer Deepti Rani Sarkar, Livestock Officer Dibas Ranjan Bagchi, regional head of UCB Mizanur Rahman, Branch manager of UCB Rashed Khan also spoke at the opening ceremony. 

On the same day, a similar type of skill development training was held for 200 agricultural entrepreneurs from 6 upazilas of the district at the Municipality Auditorium in Shariatpur.  District Fisheries Officer Aminul Haque, Additional Deputy Director of District Agriculture Extension Riazur Rahman, District Branch Manager of UCB Md. Adus Sabur also spoke at the opening ceremony.

In both the training sessions in Mdaripur and Shariatpur, 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, reads a press release.

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.