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Care brings hope for poor farmers in Dinajpur

Z A M KHAIRUZZAMAN, Back from Dinajpur
Syed Mominul Huq of village Chak Kabir in Shibnagar union (number 7 Union Parishad) of Fulbari upazila, Dinajpur was a poor farmer.
Care-Bangladesh, an international organisation, brought hope for him and others in this village 20 months ago when it started development activities in this northern district.
Holding a jolly baby in her lap, Nirjharinee Hasan, a project manager of Dinajpur field office of Care, told a group of visiting journalists that previously the baby was malnourished. The child recovered health after the project has been running for several months.
Nirjharinee also told them that Care workers had persuaded a father not to force his teenage daughter to marry a much older man.
She showed newsmen a quarter-kilometre brick road that had been upgraded within a short period.
Another of Care's success stories is that 100 per cent of the residents of Chak Kabir have access to proper sanitation. Diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases are now rare.
Momin told journalists that they sprayed juice from the leaves of indigenous 'Neem', 'Beesh Katali and 'Ata', a local fruit, in boro and aman fields to combat pests.
Poor people were threatened by a wide range of factors. They were unable to meet their basic needs. Rural children grew up malnourished, while their parents were undernourished. To fight these conditions, Care had adopted pragmatic programmes aiming at fulfillment of poor people's basic needs which include food, nutrition, clean water, health and health facilities, economic opportunities, education, housing/habitat security, safety, justice and gender equity.
Care also realised that many aspects of farmers livelihoods were outside its scope, but that it could help farmers demand their rights.
The development of a marketing component was another example of Care's responsiveness to farmers' needs.
One of the major problems for farmers was their inability to get fair prices for their produce. The
situation was so bad that even bumper output brought problems as the farmers had to sell their products for a low price. In many cases, they did not even cover the cost of production.
To ensure better prices, farmers needed better market access. Care team discussed the problems and came up with some suggestions.
Further pressure for change came when Care organised Farmers' Field School (FFS) in collaboration with Chak Kabir Durbar Sangha, an association of local farmers. Twenty-five marginal farmers - men and women -attended the classes twice a month.
Cultural functions were also arranged on the Field Day where government officials like Upazila
Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Assistant Commisioner (land), Food Controller, Fisheries Officer, officials of Social Service department, Agriculture Officer and physicians of Animal Husbandry department were invited as guests. Participant farmers discussed various problems with the officials free and frank.
Male field trainer (FT) of Care BM Rezaul and female FT Mahmuda Begum worked as bridge among farmers and government officials. They discussed and solved issues on agriculture, sanitation, marketing of products and other social problems.
Momin informed the journalists that Care played a pioneering role to unite poor farmers. They
learnt how to solve problems unitedly. At the initial stage 75 families were benefited.
The beneficiaries learnt farming techniques such as fish culture in rice fields and vegetable cultivation on dikes. They also learnt how to manage their lands at a low cost by applying integrated pest management (IPM) and organic fertiliser method.
Momin and his neighbours showed to newsmen how they preserved Common Carp fish in a ditch for spawning. They did so as part of their rice-fish and dike-crop cultivation programme. They informed them that within a few months the eggs would grow into fries measuring three to four inches.
Momin led the visiting journalists to other neighbours' houses where they observed homestead farming. Various types of leafy vegetables were grown there. They informed their guests that they regularly take fresh vegetables which helps keep fit. They also showed the newsmen that they planted saplings of guava, neem, olive, 'bahera', a herbal medicine and chilly which grows round the year, as per advice of their Care friends.
Initially Care targeted six lakh 46,000 people in 11 districts, nine in the northwestern region, while two others in the southwestern region, according to Moslem Uddin, Technical Officer, Marketing of Care.
He revealed that Care had surveyed life style of 1,600 families in six districts which had revealed that 81 per cent poor growers remained deprived of even share cropping facility.
Gradually poor villagers are overcoming the obstacles with the help of Care, he added.