Putting Saline Agriculture into Practice
Coastal Bangladesh is severely affected by salinity, with over 1 million hectares of land being salt-affected. Soil salinity is one of the main forces driving migration, with an estimated 27 million people being affected by the year 2050.
For the project, previously identified salt tolerant varieties of potato, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot and beetroot were introduced at farm level and farmers were trained and assisted during the season.
Besides the introduced crops, the focus was on increasing nutritious food consumption, improve the resilience of the involved farmers and improve their livelihoods, among others.
In total, 5000 farmers were trained. Of this group, 50 locations were monitored intensively regarding average soil salinity levels, crop yield and cost-benefit analysis.
Also, a group of 260 farmers were interviewed two years after the start of the project, to evaluate the average household income increase, the improvement of food security, and vegetable consumption increase, among others.