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In a lush field in the Jashore district of southwestern Bangladesh, tomato plants, spinach, cauliflower and cabbages are planted in long, raised rows. Every few feet, knee-high wooden sticks adorned with vivid yellow cards extend from the ground. Mosammat Laboni Khatun, a petite 30-year-old whose bright hijab matches her demeanor, is the force behind this thriving market garden.

Tying a bundle of spinach together as she speaks, Laboni explains excitedly that the cards are a natural, cost-effective way to trap insects. “They’re used like an insecticide, but they’re not an insecticide. Insects and flies are attracted to the yellow cards and then they get stuck to them because they’re covered in glue.”

Laboni then explains the raised garden-bed system that she uses on her small farm. It reduces weeds and simplifies the irrigation process, she says, allowing her to garner gravity’s help to water her crops. Before she began using raised beds, water would pool when she’d release it from a nearby well; she’d have to fill a bucket and manually distribute the water along her rows of vegetables. Now, when Laboni irrigates, water flows freely through the canal-like system created by the beds — and everything is watered with minimal effort.

Building and planting in raised beds and utilizing more environmentally friendly pest control are just two of the many techniques Laboni is learning through Bangladeshi Women Farmers Grow Vegetables, Flowers and Wealth, a Heifer Bangladesh project intended to improve the lives of 12,000 women farmers in Jashore district.

Through the project, women farmers like Laboni learn climate-smart, nature-based practices for cultivating vegetables and flowers. Over time, they farm more productively, and their incomes rise.

Collectively Tackling Climate Challenges

The Bangladeshi Women Farmers Grow Vegetables, Flowers and Wealth project, which began in 2023 and will conclude in 2027, partners with self-help groups and cooperatives to create opportunities for women and reach farmers with training and resources to steward sustainable agriculture and better weather climate shocks.

Climate-smart agriculture can’t come too soon in Bangladesh. With a population of 176 million, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It’s also among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Positioned at the head of the Bay of Bengal on the world’s largest river delta, the Ganges Delta, two-thirds of Bangladesh is less than 15 feet above sea level. The country is experiencing some of the fastest recorded sea level rises in the world, as well as more frequent and stronger cyclones.

These factors, combined with unusual rainfall patterns, have had a significant impact on the agriculture sector, which is the country’s largest sector, employing 41 percent of the total labor force. Smallholder farmers, those who earn their living from 24 acres or less of land, produce 70-80 percent of the country’s food and are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change; however, they contribute to climate change the least.

Monira Sultana, a Heifer Bangladesh regional project manager, explains that the initiative focuses on Laboni’s region, Jashore district, because the area suffers some of the worst effects of climate change. Moreover, although Bangladesh is the world’s third largest producer of vegetables, with farmers annually yielding 2.3 million acres of vegetables, she says the region’s produce often can’t be exported because it is so frequently grown with high quantities of pesticides, making it unsafe for consumers, not to mention the farmers that grow it.

Through the Bangladeshi Women Farmers Grow Vegetables, Flowers and Wealth project’s work with self-help groups and cooperatives, women farmers like Laboni have improved access to knowledge, financing and equipment that can build their farms’ productivity and climate resilience, and they are supported to sell their crops collectively, receiving better prices than they might alone.

An Environmental Leader Emerges

Laboni walks eagerly around her plot, describing the climate-friendly and other sustainable farming techniques she’s learned and is now using on her own land. She’s excited about the organic fertilizer she uses to amend her crops. She makes it herself by mixing cow dung and kitchen waste, such as vegetables and fish scales. Before she learned this technique, she said, she used expensive chemical fertilizer; this new method not only saves her money, it allows her to produce vegetables without chemicals.

“I talk so fast because from childhood I had to work very hard, so I had to be fast,” she said with a smile. Laboni doesn’t just talk fast; she also walks fast. It’s hard to imagine anything stopping her. Yet for many years, Laboni said, her life was limited.

Growing up, her dream was to be a teacher. She and her older sister were the only girls in her village to attend school. Laboni graduated high school with honors and won a four-year scholarship to study accounting. She attended university, living at home with her family and working in the fields, leaving her house at six in the morning to catch a bus to campus. In the afternoons, she earned money by tutoring children.

“I used to think since I like studying and tutoring, I would also want to teach kids,” she said.

But when Laboni finished her final exams at university, her father arranged for her to marry. She and her husband, Muhammad, moved next door to his parents, into a two-room sheet metal home, which they shared with Muhammad’s two siblings. Laboni’s world suddenly shrank; she was allowed only to care for the family’s two houses and look after their goats, cows and garden.

But later, unfortunate family circumstances and the Bangladeshi Women Farmers Grow Vegetables, Flowers and Wealth project merged to change her life for the better. Laboni’s father-in-law became ill, and Laboni cared for him devotedly. As he experienced her attentive care, he began to trust her to leave the house and pursue her own interests. During this time, Heifer Bangladesh launched the Bangladeshi Women Farmers project, and Laboni enrolled.

“My life turned around,” she said.

Laboni joined the Bijoy Nagar Nari Unnayan Women Cooperative Limited, which is supported by the initiative, and began attending the project’s training sessions. These cover a wide variety of topics, including safe vegetable production, financial management, business planning and cooperative management, among other subjects.

Through the cooperative, Laboni was then loaned 20,000 taka, about $164, to buy a climate-resistant variety of cauliflower seeds. For offering her plot as a model to show and teach others, Laboni received an additional 9,000 taka, which she invested back into her land.

With the money she generated from cauliflower sales, she bought tomato, basil and spinach seeds and returned the money the cooperative had loaned her for the cauliflower seeds so they could be passed on to another farmer. The co-op also connected Laboni with buyers who come to her farm to harvest her vegetables, saving her labor and time as well as the cost of transportation.

Laboni’s farming techniques have evolved to meet the need to prioritize Earth-friendly food production — and her income is increasing.

“If everyone farms this way and everyone’s income increases, we all can live better, and in this way our environment is also helped.” — Mosammat Laboni Khatun

Before enrolling in the Heifer project, she earned about 70,000 taka per season on her one bigha of land, a one-third acre parcel. Today, she earns about 110,000 taka on that land. She also leases additional land using the money she’s earned over the last two years, expanding her vegetable production.

And Laboni’s plot continues to serve as a model for others. “When other vegetable farmers see that I am now having more profit, they are encouraged to follow my methods,” she said. “Now they’re all using raised beds, yellow traps and organic fertilizers. I encourage them to do it this way.”

The methods Laboni is using — and now teaching — will help farmers stay healthy, she explained, because they’ll no longer be exposed to dangerous chemical inputs. But, she added, “It is also about getting more money for our crops. If everyone farms this way and everyone’s income increases, we all can live better, and in this way our environment is also helped.”

This is how Laboni says her dream of becoming a teacher is being fulfilled.

“My aim was to teach whatever I knew. To impart the knowledge that I gained to other people. I don’t teach with books and notebooks. I teach practical things. I teach what I have learned about growing,” she said with a smile.

Our Impact

The Bangladeshi Women Farmers Grow Vegetables, Flowers and Wealth project currently supports more than 11,600 farmers.

Between July and December 2024, the project trained more than 5,600 farmers on climate-smart agricultural techniques and best practices, including new crop varieties, proper spacing, balanced fertilizers and mulching. Women farmers are also using compost and vermicompost fertilizer to decrease the use of regular pesticides and grow cleaner, safer crops.

Heifer Bangladesh staff have also educated farmers and cooperatives on solar energy solutions. To date, project-supported cooperatives have adopted eight solar-powered irrigation pumps, using less diesel fuel and cumulatively reducing carbon emissions by nearly 33,000 liters of carbon dioxide per month.

Additionally, farmers in the project have partnered with 10 input and output companies and government departments to introduce new seeds, organic inputs and advanced techniques, helping to improve productivity, sustainability and market competitiveness.

Each year on April 22, the world celebrates and recognizes Earth Day by recommitting to protect the planet and its ecosystems, counteract climate change and stop the collapse of biodiversity.