Promoting organic farming in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has some of the most fertile agricultural land in the world. However, the move from subsistence to commercial farming has increased the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Many non-governmental organisations have been supporting and training smallholder farmers in organic farming methods.

Many trained farmers realise the importance of ecologicalagriculture and have adopted this approach on their homestead (garden) land.However, they are not always able to use it on major farming land, whichprovides most of their livelihood security.

A report from the InternationalInstitute for Environment and Development, UK, examines 14 non-governmentalorganisations (NGOs) promoting ecologicalagriculture in Bangladesh. Most of the NGOs run programmes that encourage poor womento grow vegetables using organic fertilisers and pesticides on their homesteadland. This practice has been extended to larger farms, which are generally controlledby male landowners. Under the programmes, group members receive environmentaleducation and training along with financial and technical support.

Training in organic agriculture has had significantimpacts on both homestead farming and commercial farming, with awareness of organic agriculture rising significantlyamongst farmers involved in the programmes. Training has had a particular effecton women, who are using organic fertiliser and encouraging people not in theprogrammes to do the same. However, although many trained farmersrealise the importance of organic agriculture, they are not always able to putthe training into practice, especially on major farming land. Key barriers tothe wider adoption of organic farming are:

• The availabilityof organic fertiliser in villages has not kept up with increases in farmed areaand farming intensity. Homestead land gets priorityfor organic manure and little remains for big farms.
• Though thequality of organically grown crops and vegetables is much better, organicfarming produces fewer crops per unit of land compared to modern farming.
• Media campaignsand untrained neighbours put pressure on trained farmers to use chemicalfertilisers and pesticides for high yields, undermining the programme.
• High yield seeds,chemical fertilisers and pesticides are more easily available and farmers canuse credit to purchase these.
• Landless andsmallholder farmers depend on sharecropping, which forces them to maximise the short-termbenefits from crop farming to ensure their livelihoods. Chemical fertilisersand pesticides are therefore more attractive, offering more immediate returnsthan organic farming.
• Farmers areconfused by the contradictory messages and conflicting approaches to ecologicalagriculture promoted by different NGOs.

Some NGOs are pushing for national policyreforms to address these problems, but there is no sign yet of any success. IfNGOs want their programmes to continue to be effective, they must:

• establishcommercial units to produce organic fertilisers, as well as using other sourcesof compost
• introduce participatory training where farmers can learn by practisingthe skills they need
• extend programmes to more villagesby making microcredit and social programmes more accessible, for example byincluding cultural activities
• improve coordinationamongst NGOs to avoid duplication and confusion
• develop marketing for organicallyproduced fruit and vegetables to secure higher prices
• improve theunderstanding of sustainable agriculture among the government and donors, to changepolicies that negatively affect the environment.