Organic Village
Our last visit on this trip was to a project called Organic Village. MCC is working with a local NGO with 20 farmers in this area to grow organic vegetables. The project began 2 years ago. The Bogra area is famous for growing vegetables. MCC sent some of these vegetables to a lab and found many harmful toxins which were making families ill. Thus the impetus for the project.
Much education needed to be done. Farmers needed to see the reason for growing pesticide-free vegetables. MCC did field demonstrations and worked with local agricultural institutes.
We saw composting done a bit differently using cow dung, neem leaves/water hyacinth leaves, ash, molasses, rice bran, and a beneficial fungus. It takes 50 days for the compost to mature. Besides the new kind of compost used, other methods to combat disease and avoid pesticides were taught. Use of sex traps, sticky traps, bait traps, spray from special fruit, neem seed oil, border control plants, and more.
Farmers take their vegetables to a processing plant where they are given a higher price for their produce. The vegetables are packaged and taken to a store in Bogra to be sold. Here education also needs to happen. Customers need to learn why pesticide-free vegetables are better for the health of their family even though the vegetables are a higher price. Marketing is a new thing for MCC and they are working through another organization for help in this area.
(Note the bag of vegetables bought at the store. Bangladesh has banned the use of plastic bags in stores.)
IFSM (Improved Farming through Sustainable Market) – Organic Village – got first prize last year in Bangladesh for its pesticide-free vegetables.
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- sign
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- head of local NGO
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- local NGO with wife
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- ingredients for compost
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- spreading ash
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- field of eggplant
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- “sex trap”
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- preparing vegetables
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- local store with produce
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- successful shopper