farmers – Ubinig

6Apr

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Development

Farmers feed people

Farida Akhter || Tuesday 06 April 2021 || READ BY SUBJECT: Development Farida Akhter THE report on the State of Food and Agriculture: Innovation in Family Farming (2014) by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates that 500 million small family farms, owning less than a hectare of land, are the source of more than 80 per cent of the world’s food supply. In Bangladesh small farm holdings (less than 3 acres) constitute 84 per cent of total farming households; medium farms 14 per cent and large farms (over 7.50 acres) are only 9 per cent, keeping to a 2015 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics report. Reliable vital statistics are notoriously lacking in Bangladesh making a reasonable assessment of the state of agriculture difficult. There are limitations of assessing the state...

Bangladesh: the importance of farmers’ seed systems and the roles of Community Seed Wealth Centers

30Jul

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Biodiversity, Knowledge and Culture

Bangladesh: the importance of farmers’ seed systems and the roles of Community Seed Wealth Centers

|| Monday 30 July 2018 || READ BY SUBJECT: Biodiversity, Knowledge and Culture The Nayakrishi Seed Network (NSN), known as the Nayakrishi Beez Shongho in Bangla, is the active farmers’ network of Nayakrishi Andolon with specific responsibility to ensure the collection, conservation, distribution and enhancement of seeds among the members of Nayakrishi Andolon. Women farmers are the key actors and leaders in the network. Community Seed Wealth Centers are run by farmers as the apex body of the Nayakrishi Seed Network linked with the Seed Huts (known as Beez Akhra) at the village level. Here is a Policy Brief of UBINIG on farmers seed system supported and published by Bioversity International, a CGIAR Research Centre, Rome, Italy. Bangladesh-the-importance-of-farmers-s...

Farmers’ Resistance against GMOs: We are rich in diversity, we do not need GMOs

24Aug

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GMOs & Genetic Engineerings

Farmers’ Resistance against GMOs: We are rich in diversity, we do not need GMOs

Farida Akhter Rally Speech: 12 May, 2008, at Planet Diversity Congress, BonnMain Theme: “For biological diversity – regional, fair and GMO-free! I bring greetings from the farmers of Bangladesh and representative of Nayakrishi farmer Rekha Begum and my colleague Shima Das Shimu who are also here today to join the farmers and activists from around the world to celebrate our strength of diversity and to resist against all kinds of destructive policies and practices that destroy biodiversity. We are here today at a time when “food crisis” has become a global newsheadline. Over a billion people around the world are becoming victim of such crisis. The poor people are not able to buy food therefore going to bed hungry each night. However, this did not come as a surprise to us who h...

21Aug

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt brinjal failed in farmers’ field

Jahangir Alam Jony and M.A. Sobhan Bt Brinjal affected by aphid Brinjal is the most important vegetable in Bangladesh, a common crtop farmers grow for family consumption as well as for the market. Nationally it is grown in about 50,000 hectares of land in two major seasons: winter and summer. However there are varieties that can be grown round the year. However seasonal varieties are culturally preferred. Indigenous nutritional knowledge claims that those fruits and vegetables are best for health if they go by seasons. Bangladesh is a country of wide range of varieties of brinjals. Despite the widespread erosion of genetic dioversioty there are still at least 248 varieties of brinjals. Most of the varieties are resistant to major disease and pests. The major...

19Dec

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Stories of Nayakrishi Farmers

Water-logging tolerant rice ensures food sovereignty of Shilpi Akter

Nayakrishi Andolon Shilpi Akter is a marginal farmer. She lives at Dewli village, of Delduar upazila in Tangail district. She has a family of four members including her husband, Mobarak Hosain (45) and two daughters. They own 75 decimals of cultivable land. They live in the lower Jamuna flood plain area. Flood and inundation are their natural companions. Shilpi Akter mentioned their fields are inundated for about six months. The land remains fallow in the rainy season in most of the years. In the rabi (winter) season they grow rabi crops including mustard, pulses, foxtail millet and vegetables. Mobarak Hosain, husband of Shilpi Akter mentioned that even in the rainy season Chamara and Digha varieties of rice would grow luxuriantly. For last 8-10 years, after the introduction of ...

5Nov

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About UBINIG

What is UBINIG

UBINIG || Thursday 05 November 2015 || বিষয়: About UBINIG What is UBINIG UBINIG is the abbreviation of its Bengali name Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona (ঊন্নয়ন বিকল্পের নীতিনির্ধারণী গবেষণা). In English it means Policy Research for Development Alternative.Starting as a small study circle in 1984 UBING grew over the years into a policy research organization, and now directly connected with both rural and urban communities to work on various issues that affect people's lives and livelihoods. We work with farmers, workers, weavers, fishers, artisans and crafts persons, commmunity health providers, rural entrepreneurs and other rural communities. UBINIG is a legally registered research and consultancy organization. We work on issues of interests that ...

The Community Seed Wealth Center: Reducing risk and vulnerability of Marzina Begum

19Apr

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Stories of Nayakrishi Farmers

The Community Seed Wealth Center: Reducing risk and vulnerability of Marzina Begum

Nayakrishi Andolon Marzina Begum (39) is a farmer, Bantial village of Sirajgonj district. She has seven members in the family with husband, a farmer; two daughters and three sons. During flood in 2007 she had moved with her whole family in the Community Seed Wealth Center at Bantiar. This Seed Wealth Center was established by UBINIG, a private policy research organization in Bangladesh. The Seed Wealth Center is a common place for seed storage at community level. Marzina moved along with her 5 kids, seeds, cows and goats. Their home is about 700 yards away from the Community Seed Wealth Center. Their homestead area went under water due to the flood. Marjina narrated her plight. She mentioned that her husband had no work for last 15 days since the flood came. All means of ...

Submergence Tolerant Rice versus Broadcast Aman Rice

2Apr

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Rice

Submergence Tolerant Rice versus Broadcast Aman Rice

Dr. M. A. Sobhan A Report on” innovative rice farming in the north” was published in the Daily Star on 11 February 2015. It was mentioned in this report “people in the low lying districts of northern Bangladesh suffered from a devastating flood, submerging traditional Aman rice varieties for 15 days, causing full or partial damage”. The information about the flood is a fact but the last part of the above sentence “submerging traditional Aman rice varieties for 15 days, causing full or partial damage” has created a space for debate. It is well known that the life and livelihood of the people of the northern region of Bangladesh has been fine tuned with the water regime since time without date. In fact 20% of the total geographical area of Bangladesh goes under water in normal...

Bt. Brinjal: Forced cultivation and poor performance!

16Mar

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt. Brinjal: Forced cultivation and poor performance!

UBINIG Bangladesh is one of the unfortunate countries in Asia, where GM food crops are being forced for introduction without properly following the precautionery principle to protect biological environment and health and proper rules as laid down by international obligations and domestic bindings, particularly related to Biosafety. Genetically modified Bt. Brinjal is one such crop which is a very common vegetable across class, culture and geographical location, and also known to be in the centre of origin, yet the government has approved it for field cultivation in October, 2013 through the national gene bank run by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI). Despite concerns raised by various farmers groups and environmental groups, the first trial of Bt. Brinjal started in...

Bt Brinjal terror spreads in the country and crosses border

15Nov

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Btbrinjal & Corporate Politics

Bt Brinjal terror spreads in the country and crosses border

Farida Akhter The environmental, farmers and women’s groups are outraged at the news that despite the failure of the first field cultivation scheme, the government of Bangladesh has taken a programme to distribute saplings of genetically modified Bt brinjal among over 100 farmers. Dr. Rafiqul Islam Mondol, Director General of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), told The Dhaka Tribune “We selected 106 farmers in 17 districts to distribute the saplings. The distribution began in October 2014”. Each farmer is given saplings of two varieties for half bigha (16.5 decimal) land, though BARI initially decided to suggest one bigha (33 decimal of land) for each variety. (see BARI moves to pularise BtBrinjal in Dhaka Tribune ). In a protest rally held on 12 November...