Jahanara and her Vegetable Garden

Jahanara Begum (40) from Degree Panchbari, a village in Sarishabari Upazila, Jamalpur district always dreamed of financial safety for her family. With her husband and their two sons, she struggled on a day-to-day basis to make ends meet. She never thought that her small vegetable garden would give them this safety.

Multi-layered vegetable cultivation: Opportunity for poor farmers

Some months ago smallholder farmers of Nakati village, Kendua Union in the Upazila Jamalpur Sadar were not ready to believe that vegetable cultivation could bring fortune to them, but now they are. Four neighbor farmers, Rotna Begum (25), Fatema Begum (30), Jomila Begum (35) and Amir Uddin (40) set an example. They started a small enterprise, cultivating mixed vegetables in a multi-layer system and after a few months of cultivation started harvesting success. Many of the villagers became interested to follow their example and start vegetable cultivation to make a better livelihood. 

Muslema: local service provider in vegetable production

Since 2010, Muslema is local service provider (LSP) in Madarganj and specialized in vegetable production. She has been trained in vegetable and crop production by the district extension agents in the horticulture training centre in Jamalpur district under the “Cross-border Transfer of Agricultural Technology, Institutional and Market Development” project. She attends regularly monthly meetings of beneficiary groups in her area. During the meeting she gives technical training and the groups plan for service provision for their members and other farmers in their community.