Bangladeshi families benefit from MCC's work

Mennonite Central Committee
Friday, 17 November 2000

MAIJDI, Bangladesh —Belal Hossain wades quietly into his pond, then casts a net into the dark water. He skillfully draws the net's corners together and carries it up the pond's shallow bank. Pulling a few small fish from the net, he inspects their size before tossing them back in the water. Soon the fish will be large enough to sell at the market in town.

Like many men in rural Bangladesh, Hossain grows rice for a large farm owner, and his family owns only a small plot of land. The water level on their 1/20 acre homestead was often too high to grow rice or vegetables, so with assistance from Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) Farm Family Development Program (FFDP), Hossain dug a small pond to try cultivating fish. Most Bangladeshis are farmers whose plots average 1/3 acre, the size of a typical North American garden. MCC workers counsel 3,000 farm families in the Maijdi area, helping them determine how best to use their land.

In addition to fish, Hossain's family rear livestock and poultry and grow vegetables and soybeans with help from the FFDP. These efforts increase their income by as much as $1,150 Cdn./$750 U.S. per year, a significant amount in an area where growing rice brings about $84 Cdn./$55 U.S. per acre.

This year MCC celebrates 30 years of its work in Bangladesh, much of which focuses on agriculture and income generation projects. At an anniversary celebration held Oct. 23, Matia Chowdhury, Bangladesh's Minister of Agriculture, praised MCC for its longtime commitment to rural families. She spoke about MCC's extensive research in the field of agriculture, saying this work "contributes to the development of Bangladesh."

At MCC's Mannan Nagar Research Station in Maijdi, workers research seeds, vegetables, fish, poultry and goats. They share what they learn with farm families, with other agriculture and development agencies, and with national institutes. In one recent project, MCC workers built poultry houses above three of 12 test ponds at the station. The fish below feed on the birds' droppings, creating a system that saves money and space.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org