“CDAIS’ innovative methods have helped me develop my understanding on how to support farmers to address their own identified needs for changes and improvement ”

Hello, who are you?

I am Fatema Wadud known as “Shila”, an agricultural economist at the Department of Agricultural Marketing.  I feel happy and proud to be working with the CDAIS project. I studied Agricultural Economics at Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. I obtained my PhD from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development. I have worked as a Deputy Director in the Department of Agricultural Marketing under the Ministry of Agriculture in Dhaka for the last three decades in agricultural and rural development in association with stakeholders, particularly farmers and small producers in Bangladesh.

What are your roles and responsibilities as National Innovation Facilitator?

I have been working as a National Innovation Facilitator, initially with the Fish cluster (niche) but now am working on the organizational assessment. I received NIF training from the Agrinatura/FAO team in capacity strengthening of agricultural innovation systems. I facilitated the Fish capacity needs assessment (CNA) guided by Agrinatura and FAO at Trishal, Mymensingh. I was involved in the implementation of the development activities with cluster members and helped with reporting after completion of each activity.

What has CDAIS changed for you?

I have attended all the CDAIS workshops and training courses in Bangladesh. I participated in the Fish cluster CNA in January 2017, the pre-validation workshop and validation workshop, the marketplace event, the advanced facilitation training and the Fish niche inaugural meeting in Mymensingh in December 2017, and the organizational assessment training in Dhaka in February 2018.

My involvement with CDAIS has enabled me to gain knowledge and learn how to reach farmers and support their potentialities. The techniques, methods and tools have helped me realize that farmers do need to change their practices given their resource limitations. A combination of partnerships, resource management and capacity development supported by a facilitator can be instrumental in enabling farmers to identify and prioritize their needs and capacity building activities to help them achieve their vision. This has changed my work ideas and methods, and I consider partnership building as an approach to support small farmers in pragmatic way.