Poster in May 12, 2022 22:07:35

Cash crops are being produced on unused sandbar area through ‘sandbar cropping technique’

Cash crops are being produced on unused sandbar area through ‘sandbar cropping technique’

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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