In face of floods and climate change, Bangladesh is turning to floating farms

Agriculture accounts for almost a quarter of Bangladesh,s gross domestic product and provides work for 62 percent of the labour force.

Yet in a country frequently flooded and recognized as one of the most vulnerable to climate change, floating vegetable beds have become a fruitful farming alternative. The process is similar to hydroponics, which uses a non-biological growing material like gravel, whereas floating farms use beds made of water hyacinth, bamboo and other aquatic plants.

The productivity of this farming system is 10 times higher than traditional land-based agricultural production in the southeast of Bangladesh,said Papon Deb, project manager for the Wetland Resource Development Society (WRDS).

WRDS is one of several NGOs – along with CARE, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Practical Action – working around the country to train thousands of farmers.

Bangladesh has had floating farms for hundreds of years, primarily in low-lying areas in the south where land is submerged most of the year.

Soil-less agriculture evolved through people,s initiative for adaptation to an adverse environment,said A.H.M. Rezaul Haq, a WRDS researcher. It has been a part of the indigenous form of cultivation since our forefathers.

Hyacinth and bamboo

Floating farms are 10 times more productive than land-based farms, experts say

Many villagers use the previous year,s decomposed bed as organic fertilizer. These new beds are kept intact thanks to bamboo poles on the sides.

Islam says the floating garden set-up is virtually free, with water and water hyacinth widely available in the waters of Bangladesh. The cost of setting up the floating bed for the growing season might be as little as US$3 for seeds and labour, or as much as $9 if a farmer has to also buy bamboo and netting.?

Haq??s team said villagers in Chandra have grown 23 different types of vegetable and five types of spices on floating beds, including okra, cucumbers, bitter gourds, eggplants, beans, tomatoes, cauliflowers, turnips, radishes, carrots, ginger and garlic.?

Several research and development organizations are now working with thousands of farmers across the country to implement floating garden projects. While the practice is common in the south – where huge floating farms look like land masses from the air – development workers are now teaching people in northern areas more recently prone to flooding.?

The southwestern village of Chandra long ago famed for its mango, jackfruit and dates, is one area where water levels rise more than two metres during the monsoon rains and remain high for 2-3 months.?

??We had land very near the river, part of which got affected during floods and so we moved away,?? said Nasima, who belongs to a farming family. ??Most of us staying here have now taken up ??dhap?? [soil-less farming] as an alternative way to earn a living.???

??Around 300-400 villagers had land on the bank of the river, but they were made to shift due to the erosion of the river banks,?? said Deb of WRDS. ??Now, with this project, there are over 1,000 villagers involved and fewer people are migrating to the city

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Because of Bangladesh??s low elevation, small rises in sea level leach salt into farmers?? fields. Changing weather patterns damage crops. Rice ? the staple food of Bangladesh ? is especially at risk. Rice production is expected to fall by 3.9% a year. By 2050, in combination with population growth, that reduction will have a serious impact on food security.

According to the article on AlertNet, ??Increasing climate variability is already costing Bangladesh’s economy $3 billion a year, and the financial toll could hit $121 billion for the 2005 to 2050 period.??

The government of Bangladesh has started to focus on adjusting to the change. On the resource end, this will require better water resource planning and new lower-use types of irrigation. It will also mean changing what kind of crops are grown and new varieties of older crops.

The problems confronting Bangladesh are a microcosm of what the entire planet is going to face. Its climate and low elevation mean that climate change will take its toll on Bangladesh sooner than other countries. We can learn from what works for Bangladesh to help prepare the rest of the world for the destruction brought by climate change.

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The export of bamboo shoot is on the card as successful trial production has started since June 1 following setting up a Treatment and Scientific Processing Plant (TSPL), at a cost of Taka 85 lakh, beside Karnaphuli Tea Estate in Fatikchari upazila.

Project director Mohammad Jashim Uddin told BSS that nearly 450 acres of land was brought under bamboo shoot cultivation this year in Fatikchari and three other hill districts.

The production is expected to be in full swing from July this year. In this connection nearly five metric tons of bamboo shoot will be processed by the TSPL in first three months and the production will be increased after expanding the processing centers in December next, Jashim said.

As huge demand of Molly Bamboo in China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia for its deliciousness, we expect to export the bamboo shoot at six US dollar per kilogram, he added. The project director said the export growth rate is increasing to 20 percent every year. Bangladesh has a huge potential to utilize the Chinese technology and earn huge foreign currency like readymade garments and shrimp sectors, he added.

Mohammad Jashim Uddin, Project Director and head of the agriculture research division of Forest research Institute in Chittagong said China produces 2500 items of goods from bamboo including food, medicine and cosmetic and exports it to different countries including Japan and the United States. In this connection an agreement was signed between the Forest Research Institute in Chittagong and the International Center for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR) of China in September 2008.

Under the agreement ICBR transferred the technology in bamboo shoot production, processing and marketing from China to Bangladesh free of cost. The ICBR has also set up a TSPL over three acres of land in Fatikchhari beside the tea estate of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BARC), according to the agreement.

A total of Taka 1,37 crore was received as Common Fund for Commodity (CFC) by Bangladesh for bamboo cultivation project from International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBER), an organization of worldwide aiding for Bamboo production through International Center for Bamboo and Rattan (ICBR), an organization of Bamboo and Rattan production aiding in China.

The project tenure is three years from January 2008 to December 2010.

After receiving the fund, the Forest Research Institute in Chittagong had started work to attract the farmers and big entrepreneurs to cultivate bamboo shoots.

A huge number of entrepreneurs and individuals had started cultivation of bamboo shoots in three hill districts and Fatikachhri upazila.

The cultivation will be doubled in next year, he said adding that the BFRI had organized four training programmes for the individuals and farmers of bamboo shoots in the last fiscal year.

The authorities also organized a training programme for the big entrepreneurs like BRAC and the officials of Forest Research Institute last month and three motivation programmes for the farmers and entrepreneurs in three hill district during the last six months for introducing the sectors and conveying the prospects about the cultivation of bamboo shoots.

The main objective of the project is to promote the grassroots level farmers about the cultivation and marketing of bamboo shoots and reduction poverty through creating employment, the project director said.

He said that they were contemplating to import different kinds of high yielding variety bamboo sapling from China from August next.

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A loan of $40 million equivalent from ADB’s concessional Asian Development Fund is being provided for the Second Crop Diversification Project. It will be used to support the development of high-value crops in 27 districts in the southwest and northwest of Bangladesh – including some of the poorest, least developed and most climate-vulnerable areas in the country.

Over 75% of Bangladeshis are involved in agriculture, with rice the dominant crop. However, the country lacks sufficient supplies of fruit and other nutritious foods, forcing it to rely on pricey imports. In response, the government has put in place an agriculture development strategy to diversify crops, ensuring national food self-sufficiency and increased incomes for farmers.

The new project will build on the gains of an earlier ADB-assisted Northwest Crop Diversification Project. It will provide farmers in targeted districts with the latest in high-value crop production techniques, including “green” technologies for organic manure. The focus will be on crops with proven market demand, high profitability, and potential for commercialization, including fruits, vegetables, pulses, spices, cut flowers, potted plants and value-added agriproducts.

“Agriculture projects continue to be important for promoting social inclusiveness, particularly of women and ethnic minorities, and this initiative will benefit marginal, small and medium farmers in target areas, as well as generating employment opportunities for landless people,” said Jiangfeng Zhang, Senior Country Economist for ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission.

With Bangladesh highly susceptible to extreme weather events due to its low-lying position along the Bay of Bengal, the new project will pilot test climate-resilient varieties of crops in drought and flood-prone areas. Training in the production and post-harvest processing and marketing of high-value crops will be provided equally to men and women, and to reduce post-harvest losses and improve produce quality, the project will support investments in low-cost community-based infrastructure such as collection and post-harvest handling centers, and small scale cool, cold and dry storage facilities.

As small farmers typically lack savings to make business changes, the project will provide about 175,000 of them with access to agriculture credit to diversify into new crops.

“The project will also undertake a feasibility study on setting up a quality standards certification system for fruit and vegetable farms to pave the way for access to domestic retail outlets, including supermarkets, and to reduce food contamination,” said Mr. Zhang.

The new initiative complements and incorporates lessons from agriculture projects undertaken by ADB’s development partners in Bangladesh, including World Bank, Danish International Development Agency, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Islamic Development Bank and Food and Agriculture Organziation.

ADB’s loan, which will finance 87% of the total project cost of $45.8 million, has a 32-year term with an 8-year grace period. Interest during the grace period is set at 1% per annum, rising to 1.5% for the rest of the term. The government is extending $5.42 million, with farm communities extending around $390,000 equivalent.

The Department of Agricultural Extension and Bangladesh Bank are the executing agencies for the project, which is expected to be completed by June 2016. ??? Asian Development Bank

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Under the programme, Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) has taken a massive plan of farming 3.5 crore GIFT Tilapia fingerlings in paddy fields to produce 700 tonnes additional fish worth Taka 12 crore this season in the country’s 10 northern districts.

The reputed NGO has been implementing the programme after the poor and marginal farmers achieved tremendous successes by producing 293 tonnes additional fish and 1.2 crore fingerlings in paddy fields to improve their livelihoods last year.

The NGO with 11 partner organisations distributed the broods for producing quality fingerlings in Boro paddy fields this year to help the poor earning profits, tackling poverty and meeting their nutrition demand by GIFT Tilapia farming and selling fingerlings.

The 3-year project of ‘Enhancing Impacts of Decentralized (fish) Seed Production (EIDSP)’ funded by Department of International Development (DFID) of the UK is being implemented and will be completed by June 2011 in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

This season, a total of 3.5 crore Tilapia fingerlings are being produced involving 8,827 paddy field farmers, who have successfully breaded Tilapia broods in their fields since the last Boro season this year.

To make the programme successful, 2.3 lakh GIFT Tilapia broods fish have been reared in cages at the community levels and those were distributed to the enrolled farmers for breeding in 790 hectares of paddy fields.

The selected farmers had developed small ditches in boro paddy fields and released the Tilapia broods from late March to mid-April, and breeding continued till April- May last when the farmers started selling their fingerlings and the business rose now to its peak.

BOOMING-FISH-PROJECT-TWO LAST

Besides, the project has been supporting 709 seasonal pond farmers for rearing the major carp’s dhani (half-inch sized fries) and 709 kg of dhani are being distributed among them to produce more 3.5 million fingerlings approximately.

Because of availability of the quality fingerlings at community level, the farmers are becoming more interested in culturing fish and requesting for more Tilapia broods this time, Project Coordinator Sattyanarayan Roy of EIDSP told BSS today.

He said that more than 3.5 lakh GIFT Tilapia fingerlings worth Taka 4 crore were produced during the last Boro season in paddy fields and 700 metric tonnes additional Tilapia fish worth Taka 8 crore will be produced before the T-Aman harvest this year.

After completion of the project by the year 2011, a total of 21,000 targeted farmers of these 10 districts will produce six crore GIFT Tilapia fingerlings and 6,000 tonnes additional Tilapia fish worth Taka seventy crore annually, he said.

Like last year, the project is being implemented since last Boro season in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Gaibandha, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Panchagarh, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj and Naogaon districts this year in the region.

Director of RDRS and Team Leader of EIDSP Dr Syed Samsuzzaman told that the proven environment friendly technologies for making available quality fingerlings to the door end of farmers has been helping them to alleviate poverty and getting nutrition.

Renowned fisheries expert Dr Benoy Kumar Barman of the Worldfish Centre told that each of the involved farmer household will be able to produce 2,500 Tilapia fingerlings from their fields of only 20 decimal areas on an average.

Vansi Reddi, Research Associate of National Resource International Ltd recently visited the project in Kurigram and Nilphamari, talked to the farmers and expressed satisfaction over the lowest cost project to facilitate fish farming to combat poverty.

Sattyanarayan today said that the project has been proved very effective when the things have been changed over the decades reducing fish production and two selling centres of fingerlings have been opened in Kurigram and Nilphamari this season.

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Several countries in the world’s top shrimp-producing region are struggling to satisfy their own appetites for shrimp because of disease, drought and the economic crisis. The oil spill is one more factor driving prices skyward, sending a worldwide ripple through an already tight shrimp market.

The price of plump black tiger shrimp is at a 10-year high in Vietnam, selling for around $13.50 per kilogram ($6.14 per pound), said Bui Dung, a manager at Minh Phu, Vietnam’s biggest shrimp exporter in the southern Mekong delta province of Ca Mau. He said heat waves along with disease outbreaks have led to smaller yields on farms. Domestic consumption has remained high, nibbling away at cold stocks normally available for export prior to August harvests.

“The demand, particularly from the U.S., is huge,” Dung said. “We receive order requests from U.S. importers almost everyday, but we cannot meet all their demands.”

Americans have an insatiable craving for shrimp, eating about 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) a year. And while wild Gulf shrimp provides only about 7 to 9 per cent of that supply, the oil spill will likely send some U.S. restaurants and super markets into a short-term frenzy, said Fatima Ferdouse, chief of trade promotion at Infofish, an intergovernmental organization for the Asia-Pacific fishery industry based in Malaysia.

“It backfired because in the American market, they planned to sell … this much domestic shrimp from the Gulf for summer, which they’re not getting now,” she said by phone. “So they have to fill in the gap. They panic and then the easy way to get it is to go through import ? they don’t have any other choice.”

According to Infofish, wholesale shrimp prices have risen by about 15 to 20 per cent since a BP-operated oil rig exploded 10 weeks ago, causing an undersea blowout that has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.

Gavin Gibbons, a spokesman for the U.S.-based National Fisheries Institute, a trade group, said Americans might see a price increase on their plates in the short term, but he’s hopeful Asian production will pick back up to keep consumers from feeling a prolonged pinch.

“It’s the No. 1 most consumed seafood in America,” he said. “People eat more shrimp than they do canned tuna.”

Ecuador is the only country among the top five U.S. importers located outside of Asia. More than a third of the nearly 550,000 tons of shrimp imported by the U.S. last year came from Thailand, the top shipper, according to Infofish.

Thailand has remained a stable supplier, largely unaffected by a virus that has crippled stocks in Bangladesh and Indonesia, the second top supplier to the U.S. last year. For the January-April period before the Gulf oil spill, U.S. imports of Indonesia shrimp were down 30 per cent from a year earlier. Imports from Thailand were up about 17 per cent over the same period, Infofish data reported.

Last year was the first time the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated a drop in worldwide shrimp aquaculture production, following the global economic crisis which forced many farmers out of business. But now, prior to the peak summer shrimp-eating season, it’s a sellers’ market.

Larger shrimp are in short supply, pushing prices to the highest level in two years, according to Infofish. Demand for the black tiger shrimp, which is very popular in Japan, has been particularly high, with prices increasing $1 a pound ($ 0.50 a kilogram) since early June.

“The demand worldwide is quite strong. The economic crisis seems to be over, especially the U.S. and Japanese markets are really demanding a lot of shrimp,” said Helga Josupeit, a fishery industry officer at GLOBEFISH, an FAO program in Rome that tracks international fish trade and publishes price reports. “If anyone wants to invest in a shrimp farm, they probably will make some money.”

Some farmers say it’s ironic that the U.S. is now forced to lean more on overseas suppliers to help meet demand. In 2004, the same Gulf Coast shrimpers affected by the oil spill successfully lobbied Washington to slap antidumping tariffs on Vietnam, Thailand, India, Ecuador, Brazil and China, accusing them of flooding the U.S. market with artificially low priced shrimp.

“It’s good to see U.S. shrimp importers are coming back to Vietnam,” said farmer Nguyen Tat Thang. “But I care more about how much profit I earn from the farm, which I am not seeing increase because of rising production costs.”

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Five weeks of heavy rain caused rivers to burst their banks and flood large areas of countryside and villages, Sylhet district chief Sazzad Hossain told Media.

“At least 36,000 families — around 150,000 people — have been marooned by the floods in my district,” he said.

The water level was still rising, causing major damage to crops and cutting off communication with many areas, he added.

“We have opened 31 makeshift relief centres where 2,000 people have taken shelter,” he said, adding there were currently no report of casualties.

Last week at least 55 people were killed after the worst rains in decades triggered landslides and flash floods in the country’s southeastern hill regions. At least 12,000 people were made homeless in the floods

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Other hand, Bangladeshi scientists have successfully decoded the crucial genome sequence of jute, Bangladeshi scientists have successfully sequenced genomes of jute, creating new potentials for its production, conservation and characterisation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

Hasina said congratulating the discoverer of the genome sequence, She congratulated a group of scientists, led by Maqsudul Alam, a Bangladeshi professor of microbiology at the University of Hawaii, USA, in collaboration with the departments of bio-technology and bio-Chemistry at Dhaka University, for the discovery. She also hoped the discovery would help improve the jute fibre quality and invent species which would also be tolerant to the climate change phenomenon

Jute, a vegetable fiber that is spun into coarse threads, was once known as the “golden fiber” of the British Empire when the Indian sub-continent was ruled from London.

The material’s long decline was hastened in the 1980s with the advent of synthetic fabrics, but the trend is being reversed due to growing opposition to the litter and pollution caused by plastic bags.

Jute exports from Bangladesh have surged — up 70 percent year-on-year in 2010 — with the fiber now the country’s second largest export after garments.

“We are exporting millions of jute bags to eco-friendly foreign buyers who want the finest products made of top quality material,” Asma Mohabub Moni, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi entrepreneur and jute promoter, told AFP.

“I’m always busy now. I’m preparing an order for 700,000 jute bags from a Japanese buyer, and I have regular orders from a UK-based company which wants the best jute bags available,” she said.

Jute cloth, also called hessian in Europe or burlap in North America, is environmentally friendly to produce, bio-degradable, versatile and cheap, making it a popular alternative to plastic bags.

In 2002 Bangladesh became one of the first countries to ban plastic bags, with China following in 2008, and last month California passed a ban covering pharmacies, groceries and convenience stores.

Some cities and states in India have recently tried to follow suit — with limited success — and many shops in Europe impose a levy on every plastic bag used.

For Moni and the estimated four million Bangladeshi farmers who cultivate jute, the worldwide change in attitude is good news.

She said international demand for eco-friendly jute shopping bags has grown exponentially, with her own business, based in the northern town of Mymensingh, expanding from 15 to 850 employees in the last six years.

And Western consumers’ preference for “fair trade” products has meant Bangladeshi jute farmers are, for the first time, getting a good price for their crop.

“Ten years ago, I’d get 200 taka (three dollars) for a mound (40 kilograms) of jute, but last year we got 1,000 taka — it’s a good sign for farmers,” said 40-year-old Abdul Mannan, a farmer from Jamalpur district.

“More farmers are interested in growing jute now than they were 10 years back and I think that trend will continue if we get better prices,” he added.

In 2002, after sustaining decades of losses, the government shut down the country’s largest state-run jute mill which employed nearly 25,000 people.

Its closure was widely seen as the final chapter in the story of jute production in Bangladesh.

“The decline started in the 1980s when the world, especially European countries, switched to synthetic fibres,” said A. Barik Khan, secretary of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association.

“But now consumers have understood the negative impacts of cheap synthetic fibres, and this has improved the potential for jute exports from Bangladesh, which has long been known for its good quality product.”

Bangladesh occupies much of the river Ganges delta plain — fertile land perfect for growing jute — and last year exported 547 million dollars worth of jute goods, according to official statistics.

“Jute has a huge future as an export for Bangladesh,” said Latifa Binte Lutfar of the Dhaka-based International Jute Study Group (IJSG).

The fibre can be used in any sector from handicrafts to engineering, Lutfar said, citing the more than 2,000 tonnes of jute that Bangladesh exports to Australia each year for use in erosion control and civil engineering projects.

With the new boom in demand, the IJSG is looking into developing high-yield varieties of jute seed, which will help Bangladesh — one of the most densely populated countries on earth — boost supply.

One recent sign of how production is evolving fast came when Bangladeshi researchers announced last week that they had decoded jute’s genome sequence.

“We will now be able to enhance, change or add specific features to the plant,” Dhaka University’s molecular biology professor Zeba Islam Seraj told media.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament that the achievement was a “glorious event” for the country.

“With this discovery, jute could regain its lost glory as the world’s golden fibre,” she said.

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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the announcement of Bangladesh’s scientific achievement in the Parliament on Wednesday amid cheers and desk thumping by lawmakers.The discovery of genome sequencing of jute would, she said, facilitate better pest control and better finished industrial products out of jute.

“This is a glorious event for Bangladesh… with this discovery, jute is expected to regain its lost glory of being the golden fibre,” Hasina said congratulating the discoverer of the genome sequence, She congratulated a group of scientists, led by Maqsudul Alam, a Bangladeshi professor of microbiology at the University of Hawaii, USA, in collaboration with the departments of bio-technology and bio-Chemistry at Dhaka University, for the discovery. She also hoped the discovery would help improve the jute fibre quality and invent species which would also be tolerant to the climate change phenomenon.

Officials and scientists said Bangladesh was the lone country in Asia after Malaysia to carry out such a high level research led by Alam, a professor of the University of Hawaii.

Alam earlier decoded the genome of papaya in the US and rubber plant in Malaysia, led from the forefront in sequencing the jute genome.

Experts said this gene sequencing would help improve the fibre length and quality, including colours and strength; and develop high yielding, saline soil-and pest-tolerant jute varieties through genetic engineering.

A genome is all of a living thing’s genetic material and it is the entire set of hereditary instructions for building, running, maintaining an organism, and passing life on to the next generation.

Genome sequencing is a laboratory process that determines the complete DNA sequence of an organism’s genome at a single time. The process is often compared to “decoding”, but a sequence is still very much in code.

The Prime Minister said the genome sequence discovery earned Bangladesh the owner of its patent right while it would restore jute’s stake in national economy.

Jute is the second largest fibre crop in terms of cultivation next to cotton. Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest producer of jute, after India, and the world’s largest exporter of the fibre.

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A high profile evaluation committee from Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) comprising breeders, horticulturists, entomologists and pathologists will evaluate these varieties of mango and after their evaluation these are expected to be released in phases.

Principal Scientific Officer and in charge of the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of RHRS, Dr. Md. Shafiqul Islam said, they are expecting that at least two new varieties will be released this year after the evaluation. He added that the evaluation is done on the basis of regularity in bearing, shape, colour, size, taste, yield and resistance to disease and insects. He further added that two to four under process varieties are performing well.

Meanwhile, the research station has released seven new varieties of mango identified as BARI Aam 1,2,3,4,6,7 and 8. Of them, BARI Aam 2 (Lakhanbhog) and BARI Aam 7 (Apela) are colour varieties and BARI Aam 4 is a hybrid variety.

Of these varieties, BARI Aam 1 was released in 1995, BARI Aam 2 in 1996, BARI Aam 3 in 1999, BARI Aam 4 in 2003 and at last BARI Aam 6,7 and 8 were released in October in 2009.

About BARI Aam 6,7 and 8, he said these varieties are regular bearer and excellent in taste. Each mango weighs 180 grams to 300 grams. Each eight to twelve years old tree can yield 130 kg to 170 kg of mango in one season.

The RHRS was established on 33 acres of land in Chapainawabganj town in 1985 as Chapainawabganj Mango Research Centre with a view to conducting research on variety development, plant protection, cultural management and post harvest management.

At present one chief scientific officer, one principal scientific officer, three senior scientific officers, two scientific officers, 13 supporting staffs and 24 labourers are working here.

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