By Protima Rani from Satkhira
The southern-western coastal region of Bangladesh is disaster prone area and every year numbers of climate induced disasters hit the area damaging crops, causing casualty and even taking away life. The people of the area have been adapting to the disasters and combating all odds and adversities to maintain their life and livelihoods. The farming communities, particularly have to face different challenges after the disasters to produce crops on time and ensure their food security. Parul Rani (36) of Borokupot village of Shymnagar has been adapting with the climate induced disasters adopting indigenous knowledge based agriculture that she inherited from her ancestors.
Parul Rani having a family of 5 members including her husband Sujit Baidya cultivates different types of crops in her homestead land and arable land. She produces vegetable in her homestead land in different seasons through the year. There are vegetable and medicinal plants as well as uncultivated plants in her homestead. The vegetable which are available in her homestead land include: Kushi, snake gourd, beans, sweet pumpkin, kidney bean, pulse, brinjal, green spinaches, tomato, red cabbage, ole, turmeric, arum, bitter gourd, radish, cabbage, beet, potatoes and papaya etc. There are also At Parul Rani’s house there are various types of cultivated vegetables, which do not need to be cultivated. Villagers collect these vegetables from his house for various cultural events and even to fulfill their nutritional needs. His house became known locally as Shak Bari.
Parul Rani grows all these vegetables and crops adopting environment friendly method. She does not use chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides. Due to being safe foods her produces have good demand in the market she mentioned. Besides, the taste of the vegetable is comparatively better than that of market ones. However, there is a fresh water pond next to the vegetable field. That is why she uses the water of this ponds to irrigate her crops throughout the year. Apart from growing vegetable Parul Rani also rears livestock which meets her protein demand. She has 12 goats, 8 ducks, 15 domestic chickens and 5 pigeons at her house.
oppo_0Parul Rani said, ‘I never leave any inch of my lands fallow. I try to maximize the use of my lands by growing crops and vegetable throughout the year adopting nature based agriculture. I farm all kinds of vegetables in my lands prioritizing my choice. I also earn additional cash by selling the surplus of my produces in the market which financially benefits me including keeping the environment and nature alive and healthy. ‘Agriculture is my only source of income. My husband and I myself are involved in agriculture. It is our way of life’ she added.
Parul Rani’s house being rich in biodiversity, is an important model for protecting and conserving the agricultural heritage, culture and sustainable livelihood of the coast. Therefore, it is important to recognize and facilitate her knowledge-skills and experience and provide necessary support so that she could continue practicing nature based food production systems that enriches agroecology.
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
