The floating vegetable gardens of Bangladesh

Coastal landscape management or protection, Knowledge creation and awareness raising

The goals of the project were defined below: 1. To strengthen climate change adaptation by invoking a local technique of hydroponics that is an eco-friendly farm practice thus helping in conserving indigenous knowledge and extending water stagnancy (2,3). 2. To respond effectively to climate change challenges such as flooding and waterlogging with innovative solutions that increase the quality of food production influencing therefore the health of local communities (2). 3. To reduce pollution from chemical fertilizers using platform residues as organic fertilizer (3). 4. To protect the ecosystem by controlling invasive species like water hyacinth and introducing it in the construction of these ingenious structures, because of their resistance to salt water, buoyancy and abundance. "These reduce the risks of mosquito breeding, and soil-borne diseases.” (1)

In 2007, IUCN & the the humanitarian agency Care International introduced floating gardening in the Gopalganj district. Until 2009, they widely promoted this technology in around 100 villages as a means of improving the nutritional status of extreme poor families, particularly during the difficult monsoon season. These agencies are still promoting floating gardening in several other districts of Bangladesh. Before the project started the implementer initiated a Participatory Rural Appraisal to establish the baseline of the natural resources (1, 3). The practice is the following: "The farmers gather weeds like water hyacinth or paddy stalks, and place them on stagnant water, beating them into shape and making rafts. Creating garden beds out of the water hyacinth is a way of controlling it. "Another advantage of these gardens is that invasive species like water hyacinth actually become beneficial, in constructing these ingenious structures, because of their resistance to salt water, buoyancy and abundance, "(1). But studies showed that there can be a reduction in its usage by experimenting with different Floating Bed cum Trellis (FBT) technology, which basically is floating garden practices for cultivating cucurbits or different types of creeper vegetable crops. The project is using both the water hyacinth technique and the new one during the action but had a target of using fewer hyacinths (4). They plant seedlings on these organic beds and place them in flooded parts of the villages. Farmers grow vegetables like okra, bitter gourd, snake gourd, spinach and brinjal on these beds, and sometimes spices like turmeric and ginger. Besides vegetables, rice seedlings, bananas, guava, coconuts, and mangoes can sometimes be grown" (1,2). Both men and women work to make these organic floating beds, which last for around five to six months. A typical floating bed is about 20ft (6m) long, but it can be as long as 180ft (55m) and provides enough food for the farmer and their family, and a source of income when the surplus is sold (1). As a success of the initiative starting in 2013, the government of Bangladesh approved a $1.6m (£1.2m) project to promote floating farms for climate change adaptation (1). The project continued until 2015 (5,8).

• Citizens or community groups
• Food producers and cultivators (i.e. farmers, gardeners)
• Marginalized groups: Socio-economically disadvantaged populations (e.g. low-income households, unemployed)