Thousands of landless families in five districts of north Bengal have benefitted from cultivating pumpkins on the sandbank of the Teesta River, which had gone dry in many places in the dry season.
Most of these families, who had lost their lands due to river erosion, have been cultivating and harvesting pumpkins and other vegetables on the riverbed as the enormous river turns to a dry sandbar following withdrawal of water by neighboring India.
Some 4,812 landless farmers of Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Kurigram and Gaibandha districts had received financial and technical supports for sandbar pumpkin cultivation from a PFP-shiree project funded by UK and the Bangladesh government.
Practical Action Bangladesh is providing technical support to implement the project.
“Over 1,100 acres of land are being used by the farmers who expect to harvest some 14,436 tonnes of pumpkin this season,” said Mannan Molla, manager (operation) of sandbar-cropping programme of Practical Action.
The project was undertaken in 2009 under the Economic Empowerment of the Poorest programme or Shiree.
“We have nothing. But, these pumpkins have kept some of our hopes alive. We can now dream of a better life, provide food to our children and send them to schools,” said Mohabar Rahman, a sandbar pumpkin farmer from Daldalia union in Ulipur of Kurigram.
Mohabar and 182 others at Karpura village were imparted training on sandbar cropping by the supporting organisations.
During the visit, this correspondent found the farmers and their families spending a busy time in the sandbar farmlands, pulling out large pumpkins and carry them to their houses.
Most of the farmers interviewed expressed hopes that they would be able to grow 260 to 320 pumpkins, a yield which would weight nearly three tonnes.
They also expressed plans to store a portion of their harvests of the rainy season, when the price of most vegetables jumps two to three folds.
Some had also disclosed plans to use a portion of their profits earned from pumpkin sales to fund other sources of income, such as cattle raising or paddy farming.
“I am planning to lease a land to grow paddy with a portion of my earnings from the pumpkins sales,” said a sprightly young woman, Mahmuda, while carrying pumpkins to her home.
Although the project was initiated some five years back, the farmers had discarded the sandbar cropping project as an eccentric idea.
Despite various odds, Nirmal Chandra Bepary, agriculturist and technical officer of the project, continued his efforts to convince the farmers and was eventually succeeded to turn the sandbar into croplands.
“We never gave up. We always believed something amazing could happen. It really happened. Sandbar cropping is a popular idea here now,” he said.
During 2009-2012, over 31,000 tonnes of pumpkins were harvested in five districts under the project, which worth around Tk21.37 crore. The harvest benefitted more than 7,500 landless people during the period.
But this year alone, the number of beneficiaries had increased to around 5,000 and a total of 1,107 acres of land have been brought under the cultivation.
Due to bumper harvest, the farmers expect the amount will exceed 14,000 tonnes this year, earning more than Tk10.5 crore.