Martha Achary, 45, and her team members were irrigating the agricultural farm one winter morning in November. The farm is surrounded and covered with blue thick netting. Adjacent to the farm are two large water drums; In which 5000 liters of water was stored during monsoon. Every morning and afternoon the farm vegetables are irrigated from water stored in drums.
"Soil and water are salty. Absence of freshwater reservoirs. Because of this it was not possible to grow vegetables at home. Vegetable farms were burnt by salinity. It was not possible to grow vegetables in houses. We are growing vegetables in this way to avoid salinity. From here we are able to meet the family's vegetable needs a lot," said Martha Achari explaining the reasons for alternative vegetable cultivation.
The story is from Baradal village in Assashuni upazila (sub-district) of Satkhira district on the southwest coast of Bangladesh. The women of the Christian neighborhood of this village have taken this exceptional initiative of collective vegetable cultivation. Martha Achari is leading this team. This group of women leases a 5-decimal plot of land from a villager and practices innovative farming, called 'hydroponic farming'. In this method the whole land is surrounded with thin dense net. Vegetables are grown in tubs made of clay. Biofertilizers have been used in tubs to prevent soil salinity. Instead of salt water, stored rainwater is used in vegetable fields.
Not only Martha Achari of Baradal village and her team members, many other women of Assashuni upazila are involved in such innovative farming methods.
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