Vegetable farming, on floating beds made of water hyacinth and bamboo in water bodies or ponds, is gaining popularity in different areas of Sylhet district.
With support from the district's agriculture office, farmers are cultivating vegetables in abandoned ponds and water bodies by making floating beds.
Farmers do not need to use fertilizer and pesticide for cultivating vegetables using this method, thus this method helps them grow vegetables at low costs. As the vegetables are being produced in a fully organic manner, the market demand for these vegetables is also high.
This new method is raising hopes among farmers and many of them are making good profits selling their vegetables produced on their floating gardens.
Many farmers are making good profits by selling their vegetables produced in the gardens.
In Golapganj and Kathalpur areas of the district, vegetable cultivation has started on floating beds on a large scale.
Farmers said following the method it is possible to cultivate vegetables even during winter and monsoon.
Vegetables are being cultivated on several floating beds in the water bodies on both sides of the road in Kathalpur area beside Fenchuganj in the district
Scientists from the field research department of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) showed the farmers the technique of growing vegetables on floating beds.
They encouraged the farmers of the area to cultivate vegetables on floating beds in different ponds of Sylhet and gave them all the necessary advice. Vegetables are being cultivated on 150 beds in Golapganj and Kathalpur areas, reports UNB.
The farmers are cultivating different types of vegetables including cucumbers, gourds, winter melons, spinach, water spinach and lady fingers in the beds to fulfill local demand.
According to the district agriculture office, these vegetables are being cultivated on floating beds in water bodies under a project titled “Popularisation and expansion of floating agriculture technology.”
Farmers interested in this project are initially being provided with beds free of cost.
Farmer Bilal Ahmed said, “Floating bed vegetable cultivation is a new method. We are cultivating vegetables in this method in fallow ponds and water bodies. We are being benefited by producing pesticide-free vegetables and selling them in the market after meeting our demand.”
Mahmudul Islam Nazrul, chief Scientific Officer of BARI, said that there is a shortage of vegetables in Sylhet and it depends on other districts for vegetables.
“This new technique will help Sylhet farmers grow vegetables at low costs round the year,” he said.
The official also said that they have taken an initiative to spread this new technique of vegetable production everywhere in the district.
The cultivation method is very environment-friendly, and vegetables produced on such beds are safe and healthy, he added.