Having weathered natural disasters such as Sidr, Aila and Bulbul, and put river erosion and creeping salinity behind them, farmers in Dacope upazila next to the Sundarbans are farming again. They are growing paddy along with a range of other crops.

Along with beans, tomato, cucumber, papaya, okra and bitter gourd, they are now also growing off-season watermelon. Under close supervision from the agriculture department, farmers are now able to grow crops on saline land, turning natural disasters to their advantage. Dacope in Khulna is, in any case, famous across the country for its watermelons.

In field after field in Dacope, the ears of rice have begun to emerge from the green paddy. They grow a little every day, and with them the farmers' dreams. A few days ago rain had dampened those dreams a little, but winter vegetables have lifted them again. Alongside paddy, the farmers are producing many kinds of vegetables. What was once only a dream is now reality.

Farmers say the paddy has done well this year. Last year Cyclone Bulbul caused extensive damage to aman paddy. With good weather, this year's aman yield is the best, and farmers' faces glow with dreams of golden paddy. Not only paddy: the remote areas of Dacope are covered in green.

Farmers Md Yasin Molla, Azizul Mollah, Sabbir Ahmed Sana and Nabibullah Sana of Sutarkhali village in Dacope said that at one time there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see in Dacope. A handful of influential people changed their fortunes by farming shrimp in the saline water. But there are hardly any gher (enclosures) in Dacope now. Wherever you look there are only crops. At first salinity caused some problems, but that has now largely passed.

These farmers said the fields are full of ripening paddy and the sight of golden fields fills the heart. Vegetables have been grown alongside the paddy too. "At this time of winter, only neighbouring Dumuria upazila grows winter vegetables. But we have taken up growing all kinds of salt-tolerant crops. The agriculture department is helping us in every way, and agriculture officers keep checking on us regularly," they said.

Visits to villages in the Nalian and Kalabagi areas of Dacope found that the large gher have all become small. Nets are strung on bamboo sticks above the enclosures, and various vegetable vines climb over them and along the fences around the gardens. Aubergine, bitter gourd, yardlong beans and tomato seem to be racing each other to grow, while bagda shrimp and white fish grow in the enclosures below.

Abdul Latif Morol, a resident of Nalian, said he has grown paddy on about 70 bighas of land this year, with various vegetables on the ridges between the fields, which he is now also selling. For the past three to four years he has grown vegetables along with paddy. At first the vegetables did not do well because of salinity, but now he is producing very good vegetables, he said.

Dacope upazila agriculture officer Mehedi Hasan Khan said aman has been grown on 18,800 hectares in Dacope this year, the most in the district. The yield this aman season looks better than last time. Farmers have already cut the paddy on 5 per cent of the land, and he expects them to bring in the paddy from all fields within the next 20 days.

When planting aman, farmers also grew various vegetables on the field ridges, and this is still continuing, he said. Claiming that Dacope's farmers are also ahead in watermelon growing, he said the watermelons here are famous across the country, so farmers also grow them out of season. Joint efforts to tackle the negative impact of salinity on coastal people and the environment are few, he said; government agencies are working on this in their own ways. Among them, the Department of Agricultural Extension is successfully producing various salt-tolerant varieties, and the Water Development Board is building and repairing embankments to keep saline river water out of settlements.

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