Model Farmers Example of Conserving Water and Producing Safe Food

Md. Abdul Aziz, son of the late Abul Hossain, hails from the village of Purapara, Damurhuda Upazila, Chuadanga District. He is the fourth among eight siblings. From childhood, Abdul Aziz was very talented. After completing his studies, he worked for a well-established pesticide company in Bangladesh. However, due to personal reasons, he could not continue his job for long and had to leave. He then returned home and started an agricultural life. Since then, he has been engaged in farming.

Abdul Aziz owns a total of 160 decimals of land, including 20 decimals of homestead, 3 decimals of pond, and 130 decimals of cultivable paddy land. He cultivates various vegetables throughout the year on 7 decimals of arable land and in his homestead.

He mainly cultivates paddy on his own land. Before joining the WASEP project, Abdul Aziz practiced traditional farming using canal irrigation, which was not profitable after deducting expenses. Last year, he cultivated Aman and Boro rice on 33 decimals of low-lying land using canal irrigation, which cost him BDT 13,000 in irrigation expenses alone.

After becoming a member of the WASEP project, Abdul Aziz received training from Protyasha Social Development Organization on water conservation, safe food production, seed preservation, and vermicompost preparation. Currently, he uses the AWD (Alternate Wetting and Drying) method and ribbon pipes to save water for irrigation. While canal irrigation takes 2.5 hours per bigha of land, using pipes reduces this time to 2 hours. In Boro rice cultivation, irrigation typically requires 45 rounds of watering, but using the AWD method, it requires only 38 rounds, saving him BDT 4,000–5,000 annually on irrigation costs.

With the support of Protyasha Social Development Organization, Abdul Aziz excavated a mini pond beside his paddy field to conserve water, which he uses for seedbed preparation, supplementary irrigation for Aman rice, and vegetable cultivation on the embankments. Additionally, he has started small-scale fish farming in his pond, cultivating a variety of native fish species such as taki, puti, rui, katla, mrigel, sarputi, carp, grass carp, koi, shing, magur, and tilapia. This meets his family’s protein needs, and the surplus fish are sold in the market to support his household’s financial requirements.

He also cultivates different vegetables around the mini pond without using chemical fertilizers, relying solely on organic manure. Instead of chemical pesticides, he follows an integrated pest management approach to produce pesticide-free, safe vegetables, fulfilling his family’s nutritional needs. Following the project’s guidance, he has also started cultivating safe vegetables around his home. Before the project, he spent BDT 5,000–6,000 annually on buying vegetables. Now, by selling these safe vegetables, he earns around BDT 9,000 per year.

As a successful farmer, Abdul Aziz has gained a good reputation in his community. Many farmers visit him for advice on water-saving farming methods. He encourages everyone to conserve water and adopt efficient irrigation techniques in their agricultural practices.