Salt-tolerant farming brings new hope to coastal farmers

Vegetable farming is emerging as a promising source of food security and income in Bangladesh's southwestern coastal belt, where rising soil salinity, erratic rainfall, drought and natural disasters have increasingly threatened agricultural production.

In Satkhira's coastal areas, particularly Shyamnagar upazila, farmers are adapting to the harsh conditions by adopting salt-tolerant vegetable varieties and innovative cultivation techniques, transforming land once considered unsuitable for vegetable farming.

Using raised beds, trellises, sacks and tower-based cultivation systems, farmers are now growing a variety of vegetables, including red amaranth, spinach and wax gourd.

The new farming methods are helping households meet their nutritional needs while generating additional income through the sale of surplus produce.

Kitchen gardening has also opened up economic opportunities for rural women. Many homemakers are growing vegetables in their yards, contributing to family nutrition and earning money from surplus harvests.

Income from vegetable cultivation is increasingly helping families manage household expenses, pay for their children's education and build savings.

Agricultural stakeholders believe that expanding climate-resilient farming technologies, alongside training and support for farmers, could strengthen the adaptive capacity of coastal communities.

They say wider adoption of farming practices suited to local environmental conditions could boost agricultural production, improve household nutrition and enhance women's economic empowerment across the coastal region.

According to agricultural figures, vegetables are currently cultivated on 1,336 hectares of land in Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira district. Of this, around 330 hectares are located along the embankments of fish enclosures, locally known as ghers.