FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8 March 2012

Contact: Maureen Mecozzi, [email protected], +886-06-583-7801 ext 572

Growing where there’s too much water

Think “water and agriculture” and it’s likely you’ll picture a dry, parched landscape, stunted crops and destitute farmers.

In places like Bangladesh, it’s a different scenario. There, farmers must contend with too much rain in summer, and thus lose an important opportunity to produce tomatoes and other high value when prices are highest.

AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), an international agricultural research institute, recently conducted training courses in conjunction with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to help farmers teach each other some other low-cost but effective methods for keeping water at bay.

In an April 2012 training of trainers workshop in Jessore, 34 participants learned how to build simple rain shelters from bamboo poles, jute rope and plastic sheeting to protect their crops from the damaging effect of heavy rains. The strong but lightweight shelters divert the showers, ensuring flowers will not fall off or young fruit rot at critical points in tomato fruit development.

AVRDC also has introduced grafting to 100 farmers in Jessore and Barishal. By using thin rubber tubes to join together tomato scions with disease-resistant rootstocks, farmers can plant tropical tomato in the hot-wet season and still produce a good crop. The eggplant line used as a rootstock has the added advantage of being flood-tolerant. Women’s groups are now investigating the possibility of establishing grafting nurseries to produce and sell grafted seedlings.

Taleb Ali, a tomato farmer from Dadpur village near Jessore, indicated that growing summer tomato on 25 decimals of land (1 decimal = 40 m2) could generate the same profit as rice grown on 200 decimals of land. He has observed that farmers who grow summer tomato successfully have earned good profits and have been able to improve their livelihoods.

Helping Bangladesh’s farmers take advantage of market opportunities with appropriate technologies is part of a project entitled “Improving income, nutrition and health in Bangladesh through potatoes, sweet potatoes and vegetables” funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). AVRDC, BARI, Bangladesh nongovernmental organization BRAC, and the International Potato Center (CIP) are project partners.

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AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, founded in 1971, is an international nonprofit institute for vegetable research and development. The Center effectively mobilizes resources from the public and private sectors to foster the safe production of nutritious and health-promoting vegetables in developing countries. AVRDC’s improved varieties and production methods help farmers increase vegetable harvests, raise incomes in poor rural and urban households, create jobs, and provide healthier, more nutritious diets for families and communities. www.avrdc.org