Farmer Haji Saral Mia of Shahbazpur village in Gauripur upazila, Mymensingh, has turned the idle banks of his fish pond into year-round cropland, showing a way to grow food and earn extra income. From a distance the okra plants and their pale yellow flowers look as if they are floating on the water.

Saral Mia said he dug the pond on 5.5 acres (550 shatak) and farms native and other species of fish in it. The pond's bank covers about an acre (100 shatak). Left idle, it grew thick weeds every year that cost him a lakh taka to clear; the undergrowth sheltered pests, and in the irri-boro season rats burrowed through the bank and did serious damage.

This year the bank has been planted with okra, with stem amaranth and Malabar spinach here and there, plus mango, olive and date palm trees, and seasonal vegetables including bitter gourd, chilli, cucumber, pumpkin, sweet gourd, winter gourd and yardlong bean. By Saral Mia's account the okra cost about Tk 65,000 to grow; the two labourers who watch the fish tend the plants in between. He has already sold 180 maunds of okra and expects 200 to 250 more, which at current prices will bring in about Tk 5 lakh 16 thousand. Okra on the pond bank needs no fertiliser and hardly any pesticide, he said.

Neighbouring fish farmer Russel Mia has followed him, planting papaya, bitter gourd and banana on his own pond bank, and farmers Abdul Motaleb, Hasmat Ali and Abuchan have put in cucumber and gourd. Md Firoz Mia, a trader from Gauripur municipality, said that if every pond bank were farmed this way, thousands of acres of idle land would come into production.

Upazila agriculture officer Kawsar Ahmed said cropping pond banks under an integrated system has opened a new horizon; Saral Mia is a crop farmer and fish farmer at once, and with the pond keeping the soil moist, plenty of sunlight, fertile bank soil and close care, the crop came in fast and heavy.

Abdul Motaleb of Satisha village, who drew attention last year for producing fibre from okra stalks, said the tall plants on Saral Mia's pond bank could be retted for fibre: from 120 to 130 plants on just one shatak he had obtained about 1.5 kg of fibre, which he said is finer and stronger than jute and can be used for rope and jute-type goods.

The banks of the country's countless ponds lie idle for most of the year; growing vegetables on them alongside the fish turns a cost into an income, and the Gauripur example is one small fish farmers can copy without new land.

Source: banglanews24