Wali Ullah, a farmer in Shrimaddi village of Homna municipality in Cumilla, has made a success of a pond he dug on 16 decimals of land beside his house: fish in the water and vegetables on the banks. Neighbours have started to take an interest in the same integrated method.
He began integrated farming a few years ago on the advice of the agriculture and fisheries offices. He has stocked about four thousand fingerlings of carp, sarpunti, tilapia and bata, feeds them regularly, and has already sold fish from the pond several times.
He uses the banks as well. Brinjal, Malabar spinach and sweet pumpkin line the pond, with papaya, mango and banana saplings between them. On nearly a bigha of land beside the pond, bottle gourds hang from bamboo trellises alongside snake gourd and ridge gourd, and bean seedlings are coming up a little further off.
Wali Ullah says that after several years of farming this way his family's protein and nutrition needs are easily met and its daily market spending has fallen considerably. The fish he sells after the household's needs are covered bring in extra income.
Upazila agriculture officer Md Mahmudul Hasan said the venture on a single plot would encourage others to grow safe food and vegetables, and that the agriculture office would give him technical support and help with hybrid vegetable varieties.
Upazila fisheries officer Nazma Akter praised the initiative but said that a good harvest depends on matching the number of fish to the size of the pond. The fisheries office will advise him on the right stocking ratio and arrange support and training.
This report is based on information from Krishi Shomoy's Cumilla correspondent.
Photo: Ibrahim Husain Meraj / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Krishi Shomoy
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