Very poor farmers and women in Niamatpur union, Kaliganj upazila, Jhenaidah, have drawn attention by setting up commercial vermicompost projects in home after home. Alongside gaining financial stability, their drive to protect soil health has changed the calculation of farm production.

For generations, crops were fed and the soil was deprived. After yielding more and more crops, farmland is losing its strength, and farmers now know it. So campaigns to feed the soil have started in many parts of the country, and the farmers of Kaliganj have made a strong response, producing worm compost commercially at home.

Women are most advanced in this, using it to overcome household hardship. The benefits of worm compost are becoming clear to people of all backgrounds in the villages, and a non-governmental development organisation is helping the whole area with organic farming and safe food production. This changed rural story can be a model for every village in the country.

Source: Shykh Seraj, Hridoye Mati O Manush. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.