Denmark to train 10,000 farmers in refugee-hit Cox's Bazar

The Danish aid agency, Danida, will train 10,000 additional farmers in Cox' Bazar with the help of Bangladesh government against the backdrop of recent floods and massive influx of Rohingyas from Myanmar.

According to a bdnews24.com report, Head of Danida in Bangladesh Peter Bøgh Jensen in a statement said the host communities in Cox's Bazar have been "struggling".

"Crops were damaged over and over again, and the fast influx from Myanmar put increased pressure on the local farmers. It is awful what is happening at the border, but it is important to remember and support the local communities as well as the refugees."

The initiative aims to enable farmers to remedy lost earnings from damaged crops, the Danish embassy in Dhaka.

The people in the area have been exposed to a range of disastrous events in recent time from Cyclone Mora in March to flooding due to an unusually rainy monsoon.

The pressure on Cox's Bazar reached its climax recently with half a million Rohingyas took shelter in one month only since the beginning of the military crackdown on Aug 25 in Rakhine State.

Danida has been running the 'Farmer Field Schools' as part of the Denmark-Bangladesh Country Programme which was signed last year.

Denmark is a longstanding development partner to Bangladesh in the areas poverty alleviation, human rights and climate change.

The aim is to partner Bangladesh in its journey towards being a middle-income country, the embassy said.