Photo: Collected
The ‘Sandbar Cropping Technique’ is a pit
cultivation method, which is quite suitable for cultivating pumpkin, squash and
watermelon in char lands. In this way pits or holes are dug in rows on the
sandbar area. Then manure and compost are given in the hole. Where groundwater
is scarce, jute sacks are used. The seeds are then placed in the hole. The next
few months are then monitored with periodic irrigation and care as required. At
the end of the monsoon season in Bangladesh, the river began to rise in
mid-November as the water level receded. These chars were then brought under
this tactical cultivation.
Cultivation techniques:
· * The depth and
diameter of the pits or holes is 1 meter. The distance between the two holes is
2 meters.
· * The bottom of
the hole is filled with about 10-15 kg of compost / dung mixed soil. Thus it is
kept for 15 days.
· * Then 4-6 seeds
are planted in each hole and the holes are soaked in water.
· * Once the seeds
have germinated, 2-3 healthy seedlings are left in each hole and the remaining
seedlings are uprooted.
· * The holes are
usually covered with a straw mat and soaked with water 2-3 times a week to
retain moisture.
· * When the
seedlings are 25-30 days old, compost is applied at the rate of 1 kg per hole.
· * At the same
rate, after 60-65 days another round of compost-soil mixture is applied and
followed by irrigation.
This farming method has
become very popular in the north-western part of Bangladesh. Smiles have
appeared on the faces of landless, hungry and marginalized people. If the
sandbar cropping technique can be gradually extended and more crops can be
added under it, then it will be possible to cultivate the vast char areas lying
fallow like the deserts of the char production rivers flowing in most of the
flood-plains of Bangladesh.
-SZK based on online
information
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