The dykes of shrimp ghers in Bagerhat have become a source of income for farmers. Shrimp farmers have had wide success growing vegetables on them, and because the vegetable yield is good alongside the fish, the practice is becoming popular. About Tk 1,000 crore worth of vegetables is produced every year on the gher dykes of Bagerhat's nine upazilas, according to the Bagerhat office of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

There are more than 85,000 shrimp ghers in the district's Morrelganj, Fakirhat, Mollahat, Chitalmari, Rampal, Mongla and Sarankhola upazilas. Their ridges, or dykes, long lay unused. Now farmers grow at least 20–25 kinds of vegetables on them, including Malabar spinach, ash gourd, okra, papaya, bottle gourd, tomato, bitter gourd, beans, yardlong beans, musk melon, banana, sweet pumpkin and red amaranth. Several voluntary organisations are giving technical and financial support to encourage shrimp farmers to grow vegetables, and the farmers are also receiving hands-on training and technical help.

Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer Shah-Newaz said that with this support shrimp farmers grow 20 kinds of vegetables on gher ridges in the year's three vegetable seasons, while carrying on with shrimp farming in the ghers. From the ghers alone, farmers produce Tk 1,000–1,500 crore worth of vegetables a year, he said.

A vegetable farmer named Enayet Gharami said they have been growing vegetables on gher ridges using the new method for 3–4 years and are getting good yields. Because the vegetables are grown alongside the shrimp at no extra cost, farmers are profiting, and the practice is spreading day by day.

Markets have grown up around gher vegetables in many parts of Bagerhat, including Gazalia, Kachua, Maghia, Dhopakhali, Signboard and Bandhal in Kachua, the C&B Bazar, Chulkathi, Shatgambuj, Barrackpur, Polerhat and Bemarta in Sadar, and Chitalmari Sadar, Khaserhat and Khalishpur. At least Tk 20 lakh worth of vegetables goes from these markets every day to the capital and other big cities.

At the C&B Bazar in Bagerhat Sadar, Delowar Hossain, a fresh-produce trader from Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, said it is the biggest vegetable market in Bagerhat. More than a hundred trucks leave it on every market day for Dhaka and other cities, he said.

Shankar Kumar Majumder, deputy director of the DAE in Bagerhat, said: "Because export-grade shrimp is farmed on a large scale in the area, the land for growing vegetables has shrunk. Several voluntary organisations are working alongside the agriculture department to encourage proper vegetable growing on fish gher ridges. With proper planning and support, vegetables worth several thousand crore taka a year could be produced on the ridges of the region's more than 2 lakh shrimp ghers."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.