: For decades, Shafiqul Islam Babu grew rice on his land in northwest Bangladesh - until climate change made rainfall more erratic and overused groundwater began drying up in the mid-2000s.In response, the 45-year-old farmer decided to grow cabbage on his land - a high-value crop that uses less water than rice, has plenty of buyers, and provides him with a steady income.
Farmers in Rajshahi used to struggle to grow rice for two seasons a year, but many are now cultivating vegetables three or four times annually on the same land, Wadud explained. The area’s annual average rainfall is about 1,100 mm - less than half the nationwide average - said Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan, a geology professor at the University of Rajshahi.
This spurred some farmers in Rajshahi in the late-2000s to try growing cabbage and pointed gourd - which is similar to cucumber - on land where they had given up on rice, according to Dewan Ali, 55, a farmer living in the village of Godagari. Boosting vegetable production is a priority for the Department of Agricultural Extension in Rajshahi, which is training farmers – from how to use fertilisers to controlling disease – giving them seeds free of cost, and raising awareness to encourage more to make the switch, according to Wadud.
“If the government builds cold storage, we can preserve and in the off-season we can sell them at a good price,“ said Ali, who has 30 hectares of land on which he grows various vegetables including cauliflower and tomatoes.