Success of homestead farming
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Dilruba Amin
THE population of Bangladesh is still preponderantly rural although the rate of urban migration of people in this country has been increasing. Nonetheless, more than 80 per cent of the people of Bangladesh have a rural existence and they live in small homesteads with some lands, unlike in urban areas where land availability per family is far smaller compared to their rural counterparts.
Many of these households in rural areas may not own any cultivable lands at all. But tiny parcels of lands in and around the homesteads that they own, can be turned quite productive for the purpose of both adding to the nutrition of family members as well as for increasing family income. This was proved from running a programme, Homestead Food Production Programme (HFPP), among the char lands' (lands accreted from rivers) dwellers in northern Bangladesh. The programme has proved to be a success and deserves to be introduced extensively in the rural areas of the country.
Under the related programme, the strips of homestead lands that once remained fallow and totally unproductive, are now blooming in most cases. Female members of households have transformed these lands into flourishing kitchen gardens where vegetables, fruits and even spices are being cultivated. The fruits and vegetables farmed in such minuscule plots are producing adequately in most cases to meet the nutritional needs of the individual households. The surpluses are being marketed and generating incomes.
Thus, efforts for food production in lands in and around rural homesteads can be amply rewarding. Here, the gains for the rural households are twofold: they do not have to stretch their already poor purchasing power from having to buy a considerable part of their food supply from the markers. Rather, they are making an income from selling the same. Furthermore, the food supply of households and hence the nutritional needs of families can also be met from the raising of poultry birds and goats as activities, as are amply illustrated by the successful outcomes of the related programme in northern Bangladesh. Thus, the replication of such a programme in other parts of the country can help increase the intakes of proteins from animal sources such as meat and eggs for the rural families. Their incomes, too, can be enhanced through the sales of unconsumed poultry birds, eggs and goats.
The country's food security, at present and in the future, can therefore be considerably improved effectively operationalising a countrywide programme for promoting and encouraging homestead farming on a sustained footing. Related efforts will also help in the alleviation of poverty of rural people and in improving their health from better nutrition.
THE population of Bangladesh is still preponderantly rural although the rate of urban migration of people in this country has been increasing. Nonetheless, more than 80 per cent of the people of Bangladesh have a rural existence and they live in small homesteads with some lands, unlike in urban areas where land availability per family is far smaller compared to their rural counterparts.
Many of these households in rural areas may not own any cultivable lands at all. But tiny parcels of lands in and around the homesteads that they own, can be turned quite productive for the purpose of both adding to the nutrition of family members as well as for increasing family income. This was proved from running a programme, Homestead Food Production Programme (HFPP), among the char lands' (lands accreted from rivers) dwellers in northern Bangladesh. The programme has proved to be a success and deserves to be introduced extensively in the rural areas of the country.
Under the related programme, the strips of homestead lands that once remained fallow and totally unproductive, are now blooming in most cases. Female members of households have transformed these lands into flourishing kitchen gardens where vegetables, fruits and even spices are being cultivated. The fruits and vegetables farmed in such minuscule plots are producing adequately in most cases to meet the nutritional needs of the individual households. The surpluses are being marketed and generating incomes.
Thus, efforts for food production in lands in and around rural homesteads can be amply rewarding. Here, the gains for the rural households are twofold: they do not have to stretch their already poor purchasing power from having to buy a considerable part of their food supply from the markers. Rather, they are making an income from selling the same. Furthermore, the food supply of households and hence the nutritional needs of families can also be met from the raising of poultry birds and goats as activities, as are amply illustrated by the successful outcomes of the related programme in northern Bangladesh. Thus, the replication of such a programme in other parts of the country can help increase the intakes of proteins from animal sources such as meat and eggs for the rural families. Their incomes, too, can be enhanced through the sales of unconsumed poultry birds, eggs and goats.
The country's food security, at present and in the future, can therefore be considerably improved effectively operationalising a countrywide programme for promoting and encouraging homestead farming on a sustained footing. Related efforts will also help in the alleviation of poverty of rural people and in improving their health from better nutrition.