Rabindra Dhali, a farmer, has experienced success after cultivating potatoes on desolate farmland high on salinity in Khulna's Koyra upazila.
His success has inspired many other farmers in Koyra to emulate his farming techniques, resulting in similar success for them as well.
Sources at Koyra Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) office said the only time the farmlands were suitable for farming was during the monsoon.
During the season, farmers usually cultivate Aman paddy and the "white gold" variety of shrimps.
After cultivation the farmlands are abandoned. It was then that Rabindra decided to try his luck by planting potatoes on 10 shatak of land, which brought him 80 kilograms in yield, one and a half months after the planting of the vegetable's seedlings.
The farmer credits his success to Jahid Hasan, assistant scientist of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), who gave him the idea of planting potatoes in the first place.
Jahid said that after Aman cultivation it took a long time for farmlands to dry. But he believed the muddy lands would be appropriate for potato cultivation, which is when he advised Rabindra and the rest became a success story.
Rabindra experimented on 10 shatak of land from his 12-bigha farmland, but now he is expanding its cultivation.
He recollected how after a rainy day a few years ago, he found his farmland muddy and decided to set up a platform and plant potato seedlings in the soil despite its high salinity.
"Each seedling was planted 25cm apart from the other, while each row was separated by 60cm from another row. I applied manure as natural fertilizer, and I simply waited for 45 days afterwards," he mentioned.
The farmer has cultivated potatoes on the same land 16 times ever since.
Dr Harunur Rashid of BARI Khulna office said scores of farmlands lie abandoned after Aman cultivation every year.
"Potato cultivation has brought glimpses of hope for farmers like Rabindra Dhali," he added.
