A tale of survival, resilience and hope

Her eyes were brimming with enthusiasm when she illustrated her success tale to me. Rahima Begum, an inhabitant of Char Bajetelkupi under Fulsori Upazila of Gaibandha, informed me that as a result of her raised plinth and livelihood options like vermicomposting kept her smiling and alive instead of destruction of current flood. "It was about three years ago, when me and my family used to eat once in a day. We had torn clothes to wear when we returned to this new char after fifteen years. After taking vermicomposting as my livelihood option, my financial condition improved drastically. I had respect in society and I dreamt of living a life again. Now I am pleased enough that I can earn with awfully little endeavour and obtain more benefits which give me opportunity to arrange education for my children, build new home, wear new clothes and accomplish many more new wishes." Through vermicomposting like Rahima, 60 more women are enhancing their income opportunity and resilience against climate change.
Gaibandha is a part of northern Bangladesh where almost every year people are affected and lives and properties are lost mainly due to floods, river bank erosion and drought. Frequent monsoon floods of July and August of each year have severe impact on life of the poorest and bound them for struggling to regain control of their livelihoods. Each shock makes them pouring for further poverty. In this connection Christian Aid Bangladesh emphasizes resilience livelihood options which support people to reduce their vulnerability throughout the project titled "Resilience Improvement of Vulnerable Extreme Riparian (RIVER)" with implementing partner Gana Unnayan Kendra (GUK).
Vermicomposting is spreading paths for income generating source for women here. As an economy dependent on agricultural each year Bangladesh requires an amount of 3,375.52 thousand tonnes of fertilizer for agricultural production which keeps up the balance of the economy. Statistically only 87% of total fertilizer demand of our country is fulfilled. Out of that, local manufacturers provide 77% and the rest 23% is imported from abroad. A solution to this problem is Vermicompost which has agricultural benefits together with combating impacts of climate change. Vermicompost is the excreta of earthworms which is rich in humus and nutrients, providing highly nutritive organic fertilizer for crop production.
Initially the project selected 450 families to support as direct beneficiaries. Among them 60 women started vermicomposting with cow dung and have been successfully producing compost for the last couple of years. At first step they got training regarding vermicomposting and had 2000 earthworms and some cash amount for necessary costing to produce it. To produce vermicopost at the outset it needs to deposit cow dung into ring slub for 15 days. However cow dung is prepared for cultivating earthworms. Subsequently the processed cow dung is put down another ring slub and earthworms are added to this. Two months later, by feeding these earthworms with cow dung, more than 70 kg of vermicompost is produced.
"Christian Aid as an organization works with the most vulnerable and the marginalized community across the world. Bangladesh is one of the countries where the life of the people living on river islands and coastal areas is being devastated by the impact of climate change. In Bangladesh our focus has been more on empowering the women by enhancing their income through various livelihood options. Among the women our focus has been the extreme poor like single women, women headed household, dalit, women with disabilities and elderly women", Says Shakeb Nabi, Country Director for Christian Aid in Bangladesh. He further adds: "If we have to make world a better place, the focus has to be on women."
In the project area vermiomposting not only creates low-skill jobs at local level but also it has many other environmental benefits. It helps to re-establish soil and plant health, increase soil fertility and augment resistance to pest attacks which increases production, increased water holding capacity of soil by up to 30%, close the metabolic gap through recycling waste on-site and others. Most significant obsession is that low capital investment and relatively simple technologies make vermicomposting more convenient for this region. Now producers put up for sale earthworm and vermicompost not only to other women of project areas but also to large nursery owners of Dhaka, Bogra and Rajshahi.
Along with production they obtain more profit by using this compost for their crop fields rather than using chemical fertilizer. Producer group informed that "it is possible to produce more than 60 kg/kilo vermicompost within 45 days. Instead of selling vermicompost one can earn BDT 80,000/- per year only by cultivating two thousand earthworms which increase through reproduction."
Evidently vermicomposting brought positive changes into lives of the extreme poor in the project area and shows them a way towards resilience and livelihood. While impacts of flooding and erosion cannot be prevented, alternative livelihood options like vermicomposting can pave the way of community resilience allowing households to rebound earlier after disaster. Producers are now very happy and others of village who face problems are now looking to establish vermicompost production on their premises too.
The writer can be reached at e-mail: soniafarjanadu@gmail.com