Bangladesh is a small country with near about 170 million peoples. Due to high population density and different geographical condition; the peoples of several areas are with different challenges of life.
For several decades the people of 10 to 12 districts in the southwestern part of the country was water surrounded for six-seven months in a year. This makes a major disaster in the lives of the farmers of this area. In the rainy season, more than two lakh hectares of land in these areas are submerged. For the most part of the year, due to having water on land, local farmers could produce crops once in a year. As a result, poverty was their constant companions. But now they have changed their life by their creative cultivation. The cultivation of floating vegetables has opened a new window to their life. They have begun to produce vegetables in a floating system by using a new technique of water logging and water hyacinth. Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognize the country's first agricultural heritage site (GIAHS) as the floating vegetable cultivation method of Bangladesh. In addition this innovative cultivation is going to play an important role to tackling global climate change.
Boro is cultivated on the paddy fields of this region from middle of November to end of May. After that almost paddy field goes under seven to eight feet water for rest of time of year. So at this time the people of this place became unemployed. They have developed a unique method to express themselves in order to survive. As the hole process of cultivation is floating in the water, so it is called floating method. Locally it is also called fence system. In a controlled environment, it is a special technique for the production of vegetables by supplying necessary food components in the water instead of soil.
Floating vegetable cultivation method has been inspired by the motto of learning to live in the water bodies of this area. In this method it is possible to produce vegetables throughout the year. Disease is less. Even pesticides do not have to be used as much. Productivity in the floating method is more than the soil. There is no use of inorganic fertilizer in the production, it is completely organic process. As a result, production costs are very low. Through a small amount of inputs and labor, waterlogged farmers produce 23-25 types of vegetables, spices and seedlings on commercially floating phase in wetlands. Earlier the farmers did not have any scope of farming due to water-logging, for which they used to pass lazily time. They are now engaged in agricultural production throughout the year. Farmers have become self-reliant in this. Over one lakh farmers of the region have turned the wheel of their luck. Farmers of the region are making huge contributions to the production of vegetables and spices in the country. Farmers are able to make a profit of BDT one and a half lakh per hectare cultivating vegetables and spices in the accumulated land. This way the people of region got rid of suffering from the curse of poverty and malnutrition. Two decades ago more than 50 percent of the people in this region were suffering from severe poverty and malnutrition. It has now fallen below 30 percent.