In a small village in western Bangladesh under the shade of a bamboo-framed thatch roof, two women sit and work with a razor blade and eggplant seedlings (Fig. 40.1). With a deft movement of hand on plant, Shovarani Kar and Trishna Rani Biswas are able to graft a high-yielding variety of eggplant onto the rootstock of another variety that is resistant to a devastating soil-borne scourge: bacterial wilt.

These women have been trained to perform this task and are paid to do so, thus raising their income while improving the yield for eggplant farmers. Word has traveled that people in this village are now earning more because of improved agricultural practices, and villagers from surrounding towns and even distant villages travel regularly to this community to learn how to achieve the same results.

Because people in Gaidghat in the district of Jessore are earning more, it has raised their social status. They used to be addressed using the more familiar form of address in Bengali, “tui,” which is used to speak to children or someone of lower rank, but are now addressed with the term “apni,” reserved for someone of a higher status (Miriam Rich, personal communication, 2007).

The Bangladeshi women's eggplant grafting effort is part of a larger project under the Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP), supported by funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).