Farmer Field Schools in Bangladesh
The only thing that can match the intense green of the surrounding young rice plants is the
intensity of concentration on the faces of farmers in the village of Dhupikula as they meet in the
shade of the coconut palms that fringe their paddy fields. This is the fifth of six sessions in
their farmer field school. Farmer Abdul Zobalir Mullah, one of the oldest in the group, is
reporting to the others how his young rice crop looks, now that he has dropped the early season
pesticide application. "I'm getting the production I expected and I'm trying to destroy the
harmful insects with other methods,"
he is saying, before the others interrupt
to ask what methods are most successful.
Overseeing the discussion is Khandugar Akobir, the local agricultural field trainer from CARE who has inspired the farmers of Dhupakula to change their approach to rice production. He runs farmer field schools throughout this district in north west Bangladesh. "This group has progressed very well," he says. "Several of these farmers were already concerned about falling yields and the health implications of using pesticides, so they were already motivated to use less and to save money". Session by session he has been encouraging them to make comparisons between rice farmed with pesticides and rice grown using an IPM (integrated pest management) approach. At this point, Khandugar Akobir intervenes in a disagreement over whether a night-feeding dragonfly is a harmful or beneficial insect. He draws the farmers' attention back to their own observations of their 'insect zoos' made in earlier sessions when, in sealed bags containing rice plants, they had isolated different spiders, flies, hoppers and winged insects to link plant damage to the insect responsible - and observe who eats who. Laughter breaks out as the group realises the confusion has arisen over two similar, but different, dragonflies - one useful, the other a pest.
Farmers of Dhupakula, as elsewhere in Bangladesh, need ways to increase and diversify production from their limited land, and farming without pesticides means they can then integrate other sources of food into and around their rice fields. Rice-fish culture is feasible in both rain-fed and irrigated rice and vegetables and fruit trees can be grown on the field dykes. DFID, through CARE, supports a network of farmer field schools which stimulate thought and experimentation in rice, fish and vegetable production.
Interest from farmers in rice:fish is huge but trained fisheries extension workers are in short supply. However, because every farmer who wants young fish 'fry' will do business with a specialist trader, DFID also supports training for fry traders in fish facts for farmers. This is providing a rural network of useful information on choice of species, supplementary feeding as well as disease prevention. The Dhopikula field school farmers have invited a local fry trader to come and explain what he can offer.
Back under the coconut palms, the session is over but the discussions continue as twenty five farmers walk slowly away to the village nearby. Whilst the pressures of poverty and food shortages still weigh heavily upon them, the field school has given them choices, new skills and more confidence to face the challenges of farming productively and sustainably in Bangladesh.
