Improved cultivation practices

In drought-prone regions, climate change has a worsening effect on soil aridity. Farmers in the Barind Tracts area of Bangladesh generally cultivate one crop per year that often fails to produce sufficiently. In farmer-led field trials, improved seeds and cultivation methods increased output from one to three harvests increasing local food security.

Gopal, a farmer living in a low rainfall region, received new varieties of rice, wheat and mung bean seeds, as well as technical guidance through the project. The selected varieties were agreed by skilled farmers, government extension officers and scientists. Gopal applied the improved cultivation methods, and after harvesting rice in October, he was able to cultivate wheat, followed by mung beans in March. As a result, Gopal harvested 180 kg of rice, 160 kg of wheat and 60 kg of mung beans from his 0.17 hectare of land. A massive increase compared to the average previous production of only 140 kg of rice. Moreover crops diversity within a year has other great advantages. It reduces the risk of crop failure and provides nutritional benefits.