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Winrock International

Volunteer Post

Witnessing Changes in Bangladesh

Jen Snow

Today’s blog post comes from Gurbinder Gill, who recently volunteered with Winrock’s USAID Asia Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Bangladesh:

The level of professionalism across the seed business is worth appreciating. It was a real great experience working with these people, and even I have learned a lot. I knew all the time over the last five/six years that this market is moving ahead but this visit convinced me that the adaption rate of better hybrid seeds will be much faster in Bangladesh. Agriculture is still the biggest employer, with a lot of their agriculture relying on manual labor. Rice production is very labor intensive and small scale dairy and livestock production also demands a certain amount of labor. But mechanization is also making inroads and this will move at a faster pace as labor shortage will increase with increasing industrialization and urbanization. Visiting different parts of Bangladesh and interacting with a variety of people gave me a better understanding about the people, religion and culture. Here, people are very friendly and hospitable and welcome people with a warm heart.

–Gurbinder Gill

Here are some photos of Gurbinder in action:

Leading a participatory training session
Leading a participatory training session
Visiting a maize research field
Visiting a maize research field