Online Nomination #26
Name of Group
Name of Focal Point
Title
SHONGSOPTAQUE
Muhammad Abdur Rahaman Rana
Mr
Street Address
House#51/B, Road#3, Hillview
R/A, West Sholoshahar,
Nasirabad
Chittagong
Chittagong
4209
Bangladesh
+8801973487838
City
State/Prov/Reg
Postal Code
Country
Phone (Business)
Fax
Mobile
Email
Nomination from:
bries.ctg@gmail.com
1. Description
Bangladesh is a small (147,570 sq. km) country and the highest
densely populated (144 million people) country in the world which is
vulnerable to different types of environmental disasters. The major
disasters and environmental vulnerabilities are floods, water
stagnancy, droughts, cyclone, tidal surge, river erosion, salinity,
extreme temperature and low light intensity, pests and diseases etc.
These vulnerabilities have direct and/or indirect implications on the
performance of crops, livestock, fisheries and agro-forestry. The
vulnerabilities due to climate change are likely to aggravate more in
the future. But the people are to live with these vulnerabilities. These
catastrophic events significantly hinder the agriculture production
systems, economic and social development of the country firstly,
through damaging the crops, livestock, fisheries and agro-forestry,
natural resources, establishments and infrastructures and secondly,
pulling back the on-going developments, business and trade at local,
regional and even global levels. Costal areas are mostly inhabited by
the poor and disadvantaged groups. The basin is characterized by
large-scale landlessness, limited labor opportunities and frequent crop
failure, coupled with a feudal social power structure. All these factors
have led to a state of poverty in the coastal areas. In the Coastal
Zone, crops are lost due to water stagnancy/standing flood water or
tidal surge during July/August-November/December (5-6 months) in
wet seasons. No crop is cultivated during kharif due to high depth of
standing water (3-5 m) in the fields. Flood/tidal surge water recedes
late from the crop fields. Crop field and homesteads are inundated by
flood and tidal surge. Crops and seedlings are damaged/lost, water
recession is delayed, water-logging is prolonged, but community needs
immediate and/or early harvest or vegetables before a regular
vegetable crop. Amaranths (both leaf and stem), okra, brinjal,
cucumber, kangkong etc. can be grown successfully on floating
substrata made of water hyacinth. For want of vegetables and fruits
the affected community suffers from malnutrition owing to dearth of
minerals and vitamins in their diet. Consequently the people especially
the women and children suffer from various diseases. Floating Bed
Vegetable Cultivation is an innovative idea to increase the livelihood
and address poverty of hardcore poor in the water stagnant areas.
Lack of cultivable space over the long flooding period is a vital concern
in the coastal belt of Bangladesh and it restricts the livelihoods of the
local communities. The promotion of baira cultivation or floating
gardening, an age old agricultural system in Bangladesh, in the
floodplain, haor and coastal area will help to overcome this constrain.
This project will facilitate cultivation of vegetables, fruits and spice
crops on the Baira and enhance the consumption/marketing of the
products, and to sensitize the local vulnerable people towards this
useful technique. Through appropriate capacity building and
community organization this initiative will promote Baira cultivation
(floating bed agriculture) as a sustainable alternative livelihood in
monsoon as well as in winter through healthy seedlings raises and
vegetable gardening. In the coastal zone, crops are lost due to water
stagnancy/standing flood water or tidal surge during August-December
(4-5 months) in wet seasons. No crop is cultivated during kharif due to
high depth of standing water (3-5 m) in the fields. Flood/tidal surge
water recedes late from the crop fields. Crop field and homesteads are
inundated by flood and tidal surge. Crops and seedlings are
damaged/lost, water recession is delayed, water-logging is prolonged,
but community needs immediate and/or early harvest or vegetables
before a regular vegetable crop. Amaranths (both leaf and stem),
okra, brinjal, cucumber, kangkong etc. can be grown successfully on
floating substrata made of water hyacinth. For want of vegetables and
fruits the affected community suffers from malnutrition owing to
dearth of minerals and vitamins in their diet. Consequently the people
especially the women and children suffer from various diseases. Thus,
the promotion of floating bed agriculture is being facilitated by both
government and non-government agencies for the vulnerable people.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT The main purpose of the project is to
establish/standardize floating bed agriculture technology/innovation
for dissemination among the vulnerable community for
reducing/eliminating the poverty of the extreme poor. The specific
objectives are: • To standardize the hydroponics technology through
field testing for dissemination; • To develop training materials on
floating bed agriculture for large-scale dissemination; • To organize
and establish a community based 1,500 floating gardens through
utilizing locally available natural resources in household adjacent to
Haor, floodplain and coastal region; • To support nutritional
deficiencies of poor household members and enhance their family
income through increasing of vegetable production; consumption and
selling to markets through cultivation of organic vegetables on floating
bed; • To encourage conveniently selling of vegetable produces of
community gardeners to neighbors and in local markets and motivate
the target beneficiaries to small entrepreneurships. • Create
awareness among the farmers/ community of floodplain, Haor, and
coastal zone and flood areas about adoption of innovative farming
practices for improving their livelihood and food security during the
flood period; • Motivate the affected community to follow the
adaptation/innovation practices in flood/tidal surge and Haor basin
areas for improvement of their livelihood. Project Activities OUTLINE
OF THE PROJECT ACTIVITIES & OUTPUTS Scope assessment, site
selection and baseline establishment; Awareness rising of the
community; Selection of target beneficiaries based on vulnerability
indicators Community mobilization and organization; Development of
Training Manual on Floating Bed Agriculture; Impart training to the
farmers/beneficiaries for conducting demos on innovative practices –
Baira (Floating Bed Agriculture); Conduct demonstrations for
cultivation of vegetables, fruits and spices on Baira in different
ecology; Organize/train the target beneficiaries on integrated farming
to increase their farm products for the overall improvement of their
livelihood. Monitoring/evaluation of field activities and assessing the
impacts of innovations on vulnerable community/beneficiaries in the
project areas; Potential benefits assessment; Project impact
assessment; Arrange annual workshop to review/evaluate the field
activities and farmers’ response.
2. Main Partners
SHONGSOPTAQUE and SONALI has made a partnership to
implement the project. Both organization will implement the proposed
project along the coastal belt of Bangladesh. SHONGSOPTAQUE will
implement the project activities along the eastern and central coastal
belt and SONALI along the western coastal belt. A lot of consultation
meeting was organized to develop the project proposal.
3. Achievements
1500 coastal households livelihood would be ensured.
Diversified food crops will be available for vulnerable people. Minerals
and vitamin rich vegetables will be available for women and children
for better nutrition. Monthly income of the households will be
increased. Livelihood of the vulnerable community will be improved
and finally poverty will be eliminated. Assimilation of indigenous
techniques, knowledge and explore the possibility of application of
modern technology to promote soil-less cultivation system in the
wetland and waterlogged areas. Identifying the existing constraints
and bottlenecks of hydroponics and negotiating strategy for large-scale
project intervention Advocating hydroponics system to donors,
financial institutions and government agencies Sustainable
hydroponics farming system for the poor rural farmers tested,
developed and promoted in the project areas including other similar
situations. The practices developed and tested are environmental
friendly.
The proposed project will ensure not less than 30 post for job.
4. Sustainability
Community based farmers organization would be developed and all of
the organization would be registered with relevant government agency
to ensure sustainability of the proposed project activities.
5. Innovation
In coastal zone, crops are lost due to water stagnancy/standing flood
water or tidal surge during August-December (4-5 months) in wet
seasons. No crop is cultivated during kharif due to high depth of
standing water (3-5 m) in the fields. Flood/tidal surge water recedes
late from the crop fields. Crop field and homesteads are inundated by
flood and tidal surge. Crops and seedlings are damaged/lost, water
recession is delayed, water-logging is prolonged, but community needs
immediate and/or early harvest or vegetables before a regular
vegetable crop. Amaranths (both leaf and stem), okra, brinjal,
cucumber, kangkong etc. can be grown successfully on floating
substrata made of water hyacinth. For want of vegetables and fruits
the affected community suffers from malnutrition owing to dearth of
minerals and vitamins in their diet. Consequently the people especially
the women and children suffer from various diseases. Thus, the
promotion of floating bed agriculture is being facilitated by both
government and non-government agencies for the vulnerable people.
Lack of cultivable space over the long flooding period (4-5 months) is
a vital concern in the floodplains, haors and coastal belts of
Bangladesh and it restricts the livelihoods of the local communities.
The promotion of baira cultivation or floating gardening, an age old
agricultural system in Bangladesh, in the floodplain, haor and coastal
area will help to overcome this constrain. This project will facilitate
cultivation of vegetables, spices, fruits and field crops on the Baira and
enhance the consumption/marketing of the products, and to sensitize
the local vulnerable people towards this useful technique. Through
appropriate capacity building and community organization this
initiative will promote Baira cultivation as a sustainable alternative
livelihood in monsoon as well as in winter through seedling raising and
vegetable gardening. Production Packages • Place a long bamboo (4050m length) over a water hyacinth field and make a floating bed of
1.5-2.0 metre in breadth, 30.0 metre in length and 1.0-1.5 metre in
height (1.5 mx30mx1m) using piles of water hyacinth (mainly lengthy
species-during piling process usually leaves/stems remain middle) on
water near to land and fix it with bamboo pole so that wind or tide
cannot drive away. • Make floating piles of water hyacinth as per
layout and continue for several times at 5-7 days interval on the same
piles until a heavy floating bed (about 30-50 cm thick) is made. •
Apply a layer (12.5-20.0cm) of fern (tepa fana) on water hyacinth bed
for finally making a heavy compact floating bed (about 50cm thick) is
made through decomposition (partially/fully) of water hyacinths. After
completion of a thick floating bed, then the long bamboo is removed
out from the bed. • Mix seeds of Red amaranth, Stem amaranth, Kang
kong, Okra and a few Bottle gourd and Sweet gourd seeds in a
proportionate quantity, mix with little soil and broadcast on the
floating bed after 5-7 days of application of fertilizers/compost. • Or
individual vegetable seeds with recommended spacing may be sown
on the floating bed. • In a few days the seeds would germinate and
tend to grow. • Apply a little urea as top dress and apply water (if
necessary) depending on the growth of vegetables. • Continue to
harvest vegetables by thinning to allow the remaining seedlings to
grow. Seedling may be raised 3-4 times from each bed. • When water
recede the bed would touch the ground and the gourds plant would
creep on the field and start fruiting. • When the bed is about to touch
the ground other winter vegetables like cabbage , cauliflower , etc can
also be planted on the bed a head of schedule planting date and can
be grown as a field crop with a little fertilizer depending on need. •
While extrapolating the technology, location–specific fertilizer doses
and its management have to be developed. Materials Needed: Water
hyacinth, Tepa pana, Dundali, Yellow algae, water weeds etc
6. Replicability
The proposed project activities can be replicated in the water logged
area of the country as well as world where needed materials are
available.
7. Contribution
According to the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and Asian White Paper published by Institute
of Geographic and Environmental Studies, Japan that coastal belt of
Bangladesh is most vulnerable zone in context to climate change. On
the other hand, BCCP 2009 also states that this zone is highly
vulnerable. Coastal biodiversity is most vulnerable due to climate
change. In this context, the proposed project aims to establish a
climate change adaptation and mitigation model which is potential to
coastal belt and biodiversity conservation. This project does not
directly efficient to energy use but indirectly it is efficient to energy
use. This project will motivate coastal people to use biogas plant in
future to discourage over exploitation of trees. It will play a vital role
to conserve water through Integrated Water Resource Management
(IWRM). On the other hand, waste manage would be patronized as
biogas production This adaptation model will focus on environment
friendly production and environment friendly products as well as
natural products would be used in the modeling demonstration. It will
reduce cost to manage natural resources and ensure maximum
production in the future. All kinds of coastal community such as
farmers, fishermen etc. would be benefited utilizing this adaptation
model. The model which would be developed will easy operational and
maintainable for the coastal community. A community based
committee would be developed to maintain and operate in the future
to adapt with climate change. It will resist all kinds of coastal natural
hazards such as water logging, floods, tidal surges, cyclone, salinity
intrusion etc. The proposed project will develop a model by which all
kinds of climatic extreme events would be addressed to adapt and
mitigate.
8. Awareness
Tri-monthly bulletin would be published to disseminate project relevant
activities. Rally, campaign, tour, exchange visit, postering, exhibition,
fair, folklore performance etc. would be organized to make awareness
among community. A website would be developed to ensure world
wide publicity of the project.
9. Other
The hardcore poor people will be the target beneficiaries who cannot
afford three times meals in a day. The proposed initiative will increase
the livelihood opportunities of the hardcore poor people during the
monsoon flood when flood and inundation of flood water affect the
livelihoods, crop cultivation, employment opportunities, income, food
and malnutrition of the people who reside in and around the floodplain,
haor and coastal area. During survey in project sites, the target
beneficiaries will be selected based on the following vulnerability
indicators: • Landless or having only homestead • No employment for
six months or larger part of the year (eg. living on beggary, borrowing,
sale of assets) • No male earner in the household • Household head or
other potential earner with disability in the household • Tribal
household • Out of school children or youth in the household Field
level extension workers of DAE, field workers of different NGOs and
interested/motivated farmers/farmers’ groups can help for
disseminating the initiative of floating bed agriculture based on proper
training and demonstrations.