This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful
In Bangladesh, river flooding is a fact of life — and it creates islands of floodplain sediments known as chars. Around five percent of the country’s area consists of these transitional lands, which form on the banks of rivers due to flooding or a change in course of the rivers.
Such lands on the banks of the three main rivers — Brahmaputra, Padma (the local name for the Ganges in Bangladesh) and the Meghna — are inhabited by poor, vulnerable communities who have been displaced from their homes and who desperately need a way to earn a livelihood. A farming technique known as sandbar cropping, which was developed in 2005, has been a boon to these displaced communities, providing them with a supplemental income.
Recent research reveals that in 2014 to 2015, sandbar cultivation enabled the production of 10.31 metric tons of pumpkins per hectare of land previously considered useless. As of 2020, it was estimated that sandbar cropping was being used on 4,500 hectares.
The post Scrappy Farmers in Bangladesh Are Growing Pumpkins in Sand appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
