Research & Development

Promoting climate smart agriculture in the coastal belt of Bangladesh

More than 30% of the cultivable land and one-fourth of the population in Bangladesh is in the coastal belt. A total of 366,650 ha of land is affected by salinity in Barisal and Patuakhali, where farmers usually only cultivate during winter while land is left fallow during other seasons. Thus biodiversity, crop yields, cropping intensity, production levels and people's livelihood quality are much lower than other parts of the country. At the same time food demand in the area is increasing with the steady increase in population. To help residents living in such adverse conditions, abiotic stress tolerant (salinity & submergence) crops need to be introduced.

The goal is to benefit 3200 farm families within 2 years.

To overcome these problems, ACI has developed a variety of improved, specially adapted stress tolerant seeds for field crops (rice, wheat, maize, rapeseed etc) and homestead gardening that can be cropped all year around.

This project aims to sell stress tolerant seed varieties and provide recommended inputs which will increase the agricultural productivity and decrease poverty among farm families in Bangladesh. The goal is to benefit 3200 farm families within 2 years.

The seeds will be sold to farmers at discounted prices and they will be trained to adopt proper agronomic practices, which will increase farm productivity. Widespread demonstrations within the project locations will also help farmers understand the benefits of cultivating a diversity of crops. As a result of farmers becoming more productive throughout the year, they will get a stable income and have secure access to more nutrient rich crops and products for their own consumption. After the 1st year, the farmers have increased their land for crop diversity by 10-15%. They have also switched from using susceptible local varieties to the high yielding varieties from ACI.

Some farmers have also adopted new crops such as indigenous potato, maize, tomato, sunflower, Mung Bean and watermelon. They would only grow rice during T. Aman and now have understood the commercial benefits of growing additional crop varieties and adopted them. They have also started cultivating rice during the Aus season.

After the 1st year, the farmers have increased their land for crop diversity by 10-15%.

To further accomplish this goal, the project incorporates the women of each family to carryout homestead gardening. The women are given 5 types of vegetable seeds along with fertilizer, money for other inputs and watering cans. The women are also trained to carry out gardening in rows to increase production. The idea behind this is that, the women can provide nutrition to their families and sell the surplus in the market for extra income. This has been highly successful and women have now requested for more varieties apart from the 5 usual ones given to them by ACI. The performance of the homestead gardens has also influenced the neighboring women to adopt the same practices; hence a snowball effect of the project can already be felt.

To further assist the farmers and the homestead gardens, ACI has supported 8 nurseries in the project locations, which are able to support by providing seedlings of vegetables. Farmers found it difficult to grow the seedlings before planting them in the fields but this problem has been solved by the presence of nurseries.

ACI is taking an innovative approach at each step of the crop production. Starting with development of seed varieties tailored for the coastal belt, to selection and training of farmers. Through the intervention of the project, farmers in the project locations both direct beneficiaries and in direct beneficiaries have started understanding the benefits behind cropping diversely throughout the year. They are not only able to fulfill the needs of their own household, livestock and poultry feed, but also raise the household income.