Homestead vegetables’ farming has effectively made 1.19 lakh extremely poor women-led char households, living in remote char areas in ten northwestern districts on the Brahmaputra basin, self-reliant in recent years.
The charwomen have been cultivating vegetables on their tiny homesteads with raised plinths to lead better life now side by side with other income generation activities under the Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) also successfully driving away ‘monga.’
According to Livelihoods Coordinator of CLP Dr. Mahbub Alam, the women-led distressed char families are being assisted to escape floods through raising plinths and make them self- reliant through various income generation activities since 2004.
So far, 9,00,000 people of 55,000 poorest households were benefited under CLP phase-I during 2004-2010 and another 64,436 out of 77,000 households under phase-II (2010-2016) to improve livelihoods of 1.9 million extremely poor char people by 2016.
Under the comprehensive programme, 1.19 lakh extremely poor families living in char areas of Kurigram, Bogra, Gaibandha, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Nilphamari, Pabna and Tangail have achieved the success to win poverty.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator Mamunur Rashid of RDRS Bangladesh, one of the CLP implementing organisations, said char people achieved success in vegetables farming and other income generation activities after escaping floods with CLP assistance.
Before taking up homestead vegetables farming as the means of their survival, the CLP beneficiary women were in abject poverty in the erosion-, flood- and poverty-prone sandy chars on the Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Teesta and Dharla basins even a decade ago.
“They have won over the seasonal lean period of ‘monga’ some five years back to lead better life with three- time meals a day, sanitary facility, safe drinking water and their children are going to schools with a dream for a better life in future,” he added.
CLP beneficiaries’ women Arsheda, Marjina, Aklima, Soheli, Rahela, Ayesha, Sharmeen and Bilkis of different char villages on the Brahmaputra basin narrated the unthinkable success they have achieved through vegetables farming on their tiny homesteads.
They are cultivating pumpkin, sweet gourd, ‘Borboti’, ‘patol’, ‘Kakrol’, ‘Jhinga’, ‘Shosha’, bean, dhania, ‘Korola’, ‘Chichinga’, ‘Lau’, brinjal, cauliflower, chilli, ‘Palong’ and ‘Lal’ sak and other vegetables to earn profits after meeting their own demand.
The charwomen said they are also earning money through selling vegetables to the middlemen at comparatively lower rates for lack of adequate marketing, preservation and communication facilities in the hardly reachable char areas.
“We could earn even better profits if fair prices were ensured as middlemen vegetables’ traders purchase our produced vegetables at lower rates for lack of adequate marketing, preservation and communications facilities in our hardly reachable char areas,” they said.
Chilmari upazila chairman Shawkat Ali Sarker, Bir Bikram, and Taramon Bibi, Bir Pratik, said the char women have achieved success to improve livelihoods through homesteads vegetables farming and other income generation activities.
Executive Director of Northbengal Institute of Development Studies Dr Syed Samsuzzaman termed CLP as one of the most effective programmes to assist distressed char women in improving livelihoods through various income generation activities.
