Rajshahi slums reap benefits of vegetable farming

RAJSHAHI, Jan 17 (BSS): Slum-dwelling households are contributing a lot to ensuring food security through vegetable farming on land and rooftops of thatched houses in the Rajshahi city.

After meeting up their respective family needs, they are earning through selling their produces.

In the initial stage, the families were given technical support along with necessary farming inputs of indigenous vegetable seeds, organic fertiliser on behalf of the Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), a development and research organisation.

Champa Rani, a resident of Namo Bhadra slum, said they are being benefited enormously after cultivating both winter and summer vegetables by adopting modern methods almost round the year.

"I cultivated bottle gourd, cucumber, and coriander according to my own choice this year, and I got expected production," she said, adding they are getting green, fresh and safe vegetables regularly.

Rani said, "We have been producing chemical-free vegetables, using organic fertilizer. We are also selling some vegetables in the local market after meeting the family's demand."

Inspired, many other fellow people have expressed their interest in producing chemical-free vegetables by using organic methods. In a choked voice, she stated that she struggled to enhance her family income.

To get rid of poverty, she started growing vegetables on her homestead side by side rearing poultry and goats.

Currently, she can fulfill the nutrition demand of her family members with chemical-free vegetables from her own garden and milk, and meat from domestic animals.

Shah Alam, a resident of Boharampur slum, has been cultivating safe vegetables, including bottle gourd, bean, ladies finger and green chili for the last two years.

Organic farming is not only safe but also very profitable. If the weather is favourable and no natural disaster takes place, I can reap double profit from what I invest in growing vegetables," he explained.

He is one of a handful of cultivators in the slum areas using organic methods and has become one of the most successful vegetable farmers.

With full support from his wife and children, he is growing chemical-free organic vegetables.