Female Smallholder Sustainable Entrepreneurial Education in Bangladesh | Sustainable Futures Lab

With support from ADM Cares, this project was a collaboration with Dr. Lavlu Mozumdar from the Bangladesh Agricultural University and Ms. Maria Jones from the ADM Institute for Postharvest Loss at the University of Illinois. After a needs assessment in 2023 revealed that female smallholder farmers wanted entrepreneurial training to better position themselves within the marketplace, a 2-day training program was developed and implemented in 2024. The curriculum for this training supports learners with low-literacy, utilizes culturally-sustaining pedagogies, and focuses on women’s empowerment.

People

**Lavlu Mozumdar** Professor of Rural Sociology Bangladesh Agricultural University

**Maria Jones** Gender Policy Specialist UN Women

**Ghaida Alrawashdeh** Assistant Professor Oakland University

Publications

Mozumdar, L., Lindgren, S. A., Tasnim, N., & Farid, K. S. (2024). Patterns, Process, and Socioeconomic Impacts of Smallholders’ Agro-machinery-Based Entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. In Handbook of Poverty, Disadvantage and Entrepreneurship (pp. 513-532). DeGruyter.

Mozumdar, L., Lindgren, S., & Nishat, N. (2025). Modern agrotechnology, women’s empowerment and poverty reduction nexus: Mediation of farm performance; empirical evidence on BAU-STR dryer. World development perspectives, 37, 100673.

Lindgren, S. A., Mozumdar, L., Jones, M., Alrawashdeh, G., & Jahnke, K. (2023). Toward women’s access to and adoption of mechanization: Analysis of women’s farmer group services in Bangladesh. Proceedings of the 11th annual International Conference for Sustainable Development.