SIDA representative visits LoCAL projects in BD

Zahra Ayadi from SIDA visited LoCAL schemes in two drought-prone upazilas of Rajshahi District in Bangladesh.

She visited a pond that was excavated for retention of surface water in the drought-prone upazila of Godagari. She talked to the community people living around the pond. They face difficulties in accessing waterbodies in dry season. Additionally, over extraction of ground water during the irrigation season depletes water table in the area and dry-up surface waterbodies. Around 50 families belonging to ethnic minority group of Saontal are benefiting from this pond by retention of rain water for household use, aquaculture and homestead gardening. The community expressed their satisfaction to LoCAL for the pond.

Zahra also saw a demonstration plot for alternative integrated farming of drought tolerant crops, that require less irrigation. In Modhupur Upazila, Zahra visited a green shade that was constructed with LoCAL support for distribution of offseason locally adaptive vegetables which are tolerant of heat, cold, temperature, humidity, high precipitations and are climate resilient and eco-friendly.