Md. Muktar Hossain from Horirampur, Manikgani
Fifty-five-year-old Rabeya Begum lives with her husband, Ahmed Ali, only son, daughter in law and one beloved grandson. She hails from a very poor family living on a remote island char (sandbars that emerge as islands within the river channel or as attached land to the river banks) in Patgram of Horirampur upazila under Manikganj district in Bangladesh, which faces the fury of nature as it is flooded almost every year, washing out her residence. The mighty Padma River is just a few yards away from her house, and she has been compelled to replace her house 3 times in the last 20 years. Excessive rains and riverbank erosion destroyed their entire land, leaving the char in a state of dire poverty and misery.
People living in Char lands endure insecure livelihoods. The livelihood patterns of the people in Patgram Char are much harsher and full of uncertainties. There are very limited seasonal work opportunities in the char areas. Country boats are the main mode of transportation for communication, taking one hour to reach Patgram Char from the mainland. Road communication within the char is the worst, with no metal roads. Residing in ecologically fragile areas, she, along with local communities, has to face seed crises recurrently in the aftermath of disasters.
Rabeya has been a member of the Women’s Development Organization (CBO) since 2015 and participated in awareness-raising meetings, training courses, workshops, seed fairs, local food festivals, etc., organized by BARCIK.
Rabeya has ancestral farming knowledge and her husband is equally enthusiastic about farming, helping her explore and implement various new ideas and techniques in their plots. She takes care of 66 decimal of land. Her passion for farming management was sharpened by BARCIK through its varied training programs, where different farming techniques are practically taught.
“I have about 40 native species of vegetables and rice seeds, which I plant throughout the year. I never buy seeds from the market,” said Rabeya. She adds that approximately 200 women from the village of Patgram save, exchange, and cultivate the crops from native species that she initiated in 2018.
Since 2020, she has been conserving the native seed species in her house for the neighbors and supports them without any cost. When the farmers of the village face a seed crisis, Rabeya provides them locally adaptive seeds from her house to meet the immediate crisis. BARCIK provides some material support to strengthen her initiative. She hopes to turn her seed house as a Community Seed Bank to extend her support to community who dire need seed aftermath of disasters.
BARCIK, in its commitment to strengthen community-based seed growers and promote community seed banks at rural remote, has been providing assistance to farmers in Char.
Translated by ABM Touhidul Alam
