A day-long training was held today at the Shilpakala Academy Auditorium in Meherpur district by the United Commercial Bank PLC (UCB) to improve the skills of entrepreneurs working in the agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors. A total of 135 entrepreneurs from 3 upazilas of the district participated in the training.
Mohammad Shah Alam Bhuiyan, Deputy Managing Director of the bank, was the chief guest of the program while Rezaul Karim Siddique, presenter of BTV’s agriculture-based show ‘Mati O Manush’ and an agricultural analyst, was present as the special guest.
In the speech of the chief guest, Mohammad Shah Alam Bhuiyan said, “UCB is working through the ‘Bhoroshar Notun Janala’ project for extending the scopes of commercial agriculture and develop skills of agricultural entrepreneurs across the country. Meherpur is the 52nd district where this training is being held. We want to stand beside the agricultural entrepreneurs and play a role in their development.”
The special guest of the training program Rezaul Karim Siddique opined, “Agriculture is the lifeline of Bangladesh. To make the country self-sufficient, farmers must become entrepreneurs. This requires business knowledge. The right place to get consultation about fertilizer & seeds, when to produce a product and how to make it more profitable – there should be knowledge about these things. The farmers need to have bargaining skills as well. Only then, agri-entrepreneurs will get success.”
Bijoy Krishna Halder, Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Extension of Meherpur district; District Fisheries Officer Md. Rokonuzzaman; Monjurul Alam, Md. Rahmat Ullah Upazila Livestock Officer, Meherpur; Molla Masud Parvez, Regional head of UCB, Md. Monjurul Alam, Manager of Gangni Branch of UCB, and other senior officials of the bank also spoke at the training program.
The training shed light on the need for entrepreneurship, capital, marketing skills, crop processing, and methods of obtaining agri loans and related incentives on easy terms. At the end of the training, certificates and various materials including seeds & fertilizers were distributed among the participants.