Saline Tolerant Agriculture in Bangladesh

Countries:

Bangladesh

Start project:

2016

Donors:

Kerk in Actie

Partners:

Community Development Centre

This project, funded by Kerk in Actie (KIA), has an objective to ensure improved food security and reduce the vulnerability of poor and marginal farmers and their families through boosting agricultural production of saline tolerant crops at the household and community levels in natural saline-prone areas of Bangladesh. As such, the intervention is proposed to be an action research project.

Background

Due to the salinization of soil, already a fifth of the world’s agricultural land has been damaged. Flooding, the rising seawater level and scarcity of fresh water contribute to an increasing level of salt in the ground. As a result, crops no longer grow there. Research of the United Nations shows that every day another 200 acres of soil is lost, due to salinization. This poses a threat to the growing inter-national demand for food.

In Bangladesh, salinization of soil is a serious problem in the coastal areas. The people in these areas are poor, they live on an average of 1 to 2 euro per day. This, and recurring floods, makes them very vulnerable. To survive, most of them depend on small scale agricul-ture. But this becomes harder and harder as their land is increas-ingly damaged by salinity. And according to the Worldbank, this will become even worse the coming decades.

Up till now, people have mostly tried to fight the salinization of soil. This is also the case in Bangladesh, where farmers use lime, urea, phosphate amendments or abundant fresh water to reclaim their land for agriculture. This is not only very expensive but also far from sustainable. It damages seedlings, soil and contains nearby watersheds. And fresh water is becoming scarce.

Project Updates

Success Story of Aziz Hawlader

Abdul Aziz came to know about STAB project from the project staff and showed interest to be a demo farmer. Then he received a 2 days long training from the project and established a demonstration plot on carrot production which was a new crop for him. In 2.5 decimal of land he planted local carrot seeds called “Mallika” and in another 2.5 decimal he planted “Copper F-1” seeds which were provided from SFT, Netherland through Saline Tolerant Agriculture in Bangladesh (STAB) project and planted seeds on 4th December 2017 followed by recommended fertilizer dose, farm monitoring and record-keeping regularly. Though soil salinity kit box, he was collecting a soil sample and tested for soil and water salinity every after 3 weeks. Finally, through STAB project, he got a better result in his demonstration plot of carrot production. He is really happy and determined to continue carrot cultivation in the coming seasons.