REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Women could be in the first line combatants in a war against poverty as happens in Bangladesh, under the United States’ initiative, Feed the Future. And now United States and ASEAN has just launched a project named Maximizing Agricultural Revenue through Knowledge, Enterprise Development, and Trade (MARKET) on Tuesday. The program aims to improve food security for ASEAN Member States and facilitate the trade of food commodities.

This program can empower women, who are generally under-represented in political and administrative structure. “But they have the lack access to land, technical knowledge, and capital,” The Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN, Sundram Pushpanathan said on Wednesday. This program will seek to incorporate gender issues into each regional organization’s food security strategy.

The Assistant Minister for International Cooperation in the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, Tahlim Sudaryanto, agreed that investment from private sector was needed because government's ability was limited. He added that the focus on the MARKET program was giving benefit to small farmers, including technological development to increase their productivity.

“The involvement of women is very strategic and indiscriminate. It also guarantees that agricultural development is more sustainable,” Sudaryanto said. The program will fit woman ability in agriculture, such as the method of rice plant. “The technology should be specially designed for women,” he said. 

Bangladesh' experience tells us that involving women into poverty eradication program have a great impact in society. Empowering Bangadeshi women in agriculture sector can decrease the poverty and malnutrition rates by 50 percent.  

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