After her marriage, Jyotsna Roy spent years in hardship in her husband’s household. Her husband, Uttam Roy, worked as a farm labourer on other people’s land, and Jyotsna took work in other homes to earn more. Still the family struggled. About seven years ago she began raising fish in a pond beside the house and growing vegetables along its banks. The fish and vegetables now feed the family and the surplus is sold, and the household has become comfortable.
On seven bighas of land, eight ponds are now used for fish alongside seasonal vegetables. Farming fish and vegetables together all year round in this integrated way has changed Jyotsna Roy’s fortunes. She now runs the farm, while Uttam Roy sells its fish and vegetables in local markets and to wholesalers.
The couple, from Tildanga village in Dacope upazila of Khulna, started on 20 decimals of inherited land. They now own 231.4 decimals, as well as four cows and two calves. Their success has drawn others to the method: at least 8 to 10 people in the village now grow vegetables this way and have improved their families’ finances. The upazila fisheries office provides fry, fish feed, fertiliser and seed as incentives, along with farming advice.
Jyotsna Roy said she was married at 14 and lived in want in her husband’s home. One day, between household chores, she joined a training session held nearby on growing vegetables on the same land as fish. With that idea, and after talking it over with her husband, she started small. A field worker from the non-governmental organisation that ran the training later visited her farm, gave her advice on vegetables and supplied seed. She stocked the pond with fry on her own.
Tending the vegetable beds on the dykes of her pond, Jyotsna said she first grew bottle gourd and pumpkin alongside the fish. Later she added cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, aubergine, ridge gourd, chilli, papaya, okra and other vegetables. Last year she also grew watermelon on the dykes. The farm now earns her about Tk 10-12 lakh a year. She raises carp in fresh water held in the pond and grows vegetables free of chemicals with organic fertiliser.
Uttam Roy said he helps his wife look after the vegetables and feed the fish. Every morning he takes fresh vegetables from the farm to market. The extra income has made the family comfortable; they have bought land with it and pay for their daily expenses and their children’s schooling.
Dacope upazila senior fisheries officer Md Abubakar Siddique said that salinity once made it hard to farm carp and vegetables in the area. Through hard work, Dacope’s farmers have overcome that and now succeed in raising fish and vegetables together.
He said that, to meet family nutrition needs, 10 farmers in the upazila were given demonstration plots under the third phase of the union-level fisheries technology services extension project. Jyotsna is one of the seven women among them and one of its successful farmers. The aim of the demonstrations, he said, is to interest other farmers in the area and bring families out of hardship.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report