An innovation in combating extreme poverty and climate change.

1. Living with Disasters, Coping with
Technologies
Unfolding the opportunity for cross boundary
knowledge sharing in South Asia
Organised by:

2. Transforming lands, Transforming lives
Sandbar Cropping
“I have no doubt that it is possible to give a new
direction to technological development, a direction
that shall lead it back to the real needs of man”
E.F. Schumacher

3. The Organization
Practical Action was founded in 1966 by the eminent economist
E.F. Schumacher, author of “ Small is Beautiful”
With a vision :
A world free of poverty and injustice in which technology is used for
the benefit of all.
Kenya, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Peru, Bolivia,
Sudan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh,

4. Environmental factors

5. Vulnerabilities:
FloodRiver Erosion

6. Limited
access to
prod.
resource
Food
insecurity
Hunger &
Monga
Displacem
ent &
migration
Social/G
inequity &
Marginalis
ation
Limited
Voice and
Choice
Natural
Disasters
RE/Flood/
Cold
Community
Context
Consequences

7. The ultimate challenges
Raising poverty & fear of hunger
20 m people in Bangladesh & Globally 1.4 billion are at
risk of hunger
?

8. The Innovation:
It has four major dimensions for transformative change i.e. land & water,
food & nutrition, CC adaptation and economic graduation

9. Graduation Model Proposed By Practical Action
Stage
Graduation Stage II
Sustainability &
Growth
Increase Income
Market facilitation
Asset Generation
Community led service
Off Farm
Farm
Capacity Building,
Access to Resources Time
Diversification of Job
Permanent Skill-
Self employment
Graduation Stage I
Production
Food Security
Value Appreciation
& Asset Protection
Institutional
support
Social
Protection
Physical
Protection
Our Approach

10. To date progress
Districts-5
Upazila- 21
Unions-88
Village-250
Over 72,000 Extreme Poor
households reached since 2004
9196 Sq.Km

11. GPS imaging of the Project CA

12. GPS Mapping:

13. Views from the space

14. Resource & opportunity

15. Technology Transfer

16. Production cycle

17. Harvest and Storage

18. Village based Marketing

19. A total no of beneficiaries = 22131
Total production (since 2005-2016) = 128000 MT
Total sell recorded (80% of the product) = 102400 MT
worth £ 8.2 m (based on local sell @ 8 Tk/kg)
Urban market value = £ 16.4 m
2018 production = 31,000 MT by 5000
Farm gate sell value = £ 4.4 m
Marketing and Export

20. Cost benefit status
0
100000000
200000000
300000000
400000000
500000000
600000000
700000000
800000000
Total investment (Tk.) Total gross income (Tk.)
Cost benefit
No of Beneficiaries 19231
No of Spot 474
Total Area in ha. 3004.2
Total Production (MT) 92000.176
Total investment (Tk.) 153716999
Total gross income (Tk.) 717507204
Cost benefit ratio 1 : 4.67
(2004 – 2016)

21. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35% 32%
25%
20%
6%
5% 4%
2%
6%
Total population 4812
Outcomes and Impacts

22. Boosting Nutrition
(38000 HHs 107,907 Individuals)
1. Individual Counselling
2. Group Training
4. De-worming
3. Micro-nutrient Supplementation
5. Institutional Linkage with
Nutrition Specific
Nutrition Sensitive
6. Observe National Days
5. Fruit production at home
3. Health - Hygiene and WASH
4. Homestead Gardening and Poultry
Rearing
2. Social Mobilisation
1. Gender Awareness Training

23. Nutrition Training:
Nutrition Gender Training
Nutrition Sensitive work for adolescent girls Nutrition worker discussing with VC
BAU & senior Professors
ToT for Community Volunteer

24. Food diversification:

25. An example of Resilience

26. Food
Security
HH Income
& Employment
Family
Nutrition
Reduce burden of
safety net
Lean season
management
Asset
generation
How only pumpkin can
contribute?

27. Complementing
to the Global
Causes

28. International Recognitions
“Asia-pacific gold award
2017"
Cannes Media
and
Corporate Award 2011
DW Global Ideas 3000
St Andrews Prize for Environment 2013

29. Recent thought
Commercial Integration
Commercial
integration &
scale
Economic
opportunity
Transitional
Land

30. Water Efficiency for Scaling up Sandbar Cropping
Through a Market Based Approach

31. Testing water efficiency
1064 m L water saved over the period from 4200 ha
cropping zone

32. Foreign Export

33. R & D for crop diversification

34. Crop diversification trial in collaboration with Agricultural Universities
in Bangladesh and Rheine Waal University, Germany

35. High Value Crop-Squash

36. Trail on
commercial flowers production

37. Duel impacts

38. Harvesting for sell:

39. One out of many

40. Fodder Cultivation

41. 2016-2018

42. Vision for Change:
Pumpkins as a vehicle for poverty reduction, combat food
insecurity, hunger and malnourishment
Testing with 6000 extreme poor HHs (90% women)
are negotiating and securing operational access
to sandbars, for improved income, food security,
nutrition, and access to markets
to enhance economic opportunity

43. Area Selection: Post Monsoon

44. Group Formation and
Training

45. Pit Preparation

46. Seed Sowing

47. Irrigation

48. Unseen Risk:
December 5-30, 2017

49. Risk Mitigation
?

50. Harvest: short duration vegetable

51. Harvest for consumption and sell

52. Marketing- Squash

53. Village based marketing

54. Green harvest & Marketing
Trade North to South

55. Harvesting: Ripening stage

56. Storage at farmers house

57. GOOD BYE 2016
How was the last Year

58. Pumpkins Carnival 2016-17

59. Pumpkin Carnival

60. A JOY!!!!!!

61. Pumpkin Carnival

63. Mode of Transport from field

64. Mode of Transport

65. It’s a victory against HUNGER
&
A victory against POVERTY

66. Future potentials in the regions

67. What we need now?
Our Collective vision to

68. Joint study by Institute of Water Modelling (IWM)
and Practical Action, 2017
2657.5
2652.06
2610
2620
2630
2640
2650
2660
2670
2680
2690
2700
2710
2720
2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
AreainSq.Km
Average Charland Area
2674.2
2709.7

69. Potentials of scaling up at transitional
riverbed In North-West Bangladesh
In the BMG River System- A total of 2709 Sq. Km
(0.27m Hectares) transitional sandbar raised in winter
for 5 months + 0.3 m ha settled Charland

70. An appropriate
Regional POLICY
can make
a big DIFFERENCE
of the fate of millions

71. Collaboration with Govt.; Research
Institutes & Universities
The innovation has incorporated in
the recent national policy 2018
by the Ministry of Agriculture
We are closely working with
1. Dept. of Agricultural Extension
2. Agricultural Universities
3. Soil Resource and Development
Institute
4. Bangladesh Agricultural Research
Institute

72. Minister for Peoples
Mr. Minister for Cultural Affairs found it as a solution for his community
and suggesting them to run with this

73. The biggest Success

74. Thank you
Nazmul Chowdhury, Head of Inclusive Agriculture
nazmul.chowdhury@practicalaction.org.bd
Let’s give them a smile!

75. Team Values
It is not how much we do,
but how much love we put in the doing.
It is not how much we give,
but how much love we put in the giving.
~ Mother Teresa