Growing vegetables beside shrimp gher (fields) on floating garden beds made from water hyacinth has turned out to be a beneficial for Nurul Islam Morol, a farmer in Paikgacha upazila, Khulna.
Nurul Islam also, a shrimp field owner residing in South Shrikanthapur villag under Raruli Union in the upazila, is now earning Tk1.4m a year by cultivating various kinds of vegetables, including beans, gourds, eggplants, pumpkins, beets, bitter gourd, tomatoes and pepper on the specially made beds that float on the marshland.
The floating beds are on 0.8 hectare of land and around 375 feet long, around 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide.
Nurul Islam told BSS that he is making a profit by selling the vegetables grown on the floating beds. On the other hand, he is also earning money by selling shrimp and other fish.
“I earned Tk500,000 from selling shrimp and other fish, Tk118,000 from rice paddies, Tk8,000 from bitter gourd, Tk15,000 from balsam apples, Tk40,000 from gourds, Tk8,000 from pumpkins, Tk3,000 from eggplants and Tk 684,000 from others vegetables and by leasing land other farmers during the year,” said the farmer.
“To make ‘dhap’’, which are used to grow crops on marshland, Tk100,000 is paid for water hyacinth, Tk20,000 for fertilizers and around Tk280,000 for the labourers and other workers.
“My financial condition was worse five years ago as crops were not grown on my 0.8 hectares of land due to heavy rainfall, salinity, fertiliser crises and load shedding problems,” he added.
Agriculturist Bibhash Chandra Saha told BSS that more farmers are being trained under a government project arranged by the Department of Agriculture Extension office in Khulna and that a huge number of marshlands in the upazila will be cultivated in this fashion.
Around 50 farmers from the upazila have showed interest in cultivating winter vegetables on their marshland this year after visiting Nurul Islam’s property recently, he said.