Vermicompost: A New Hope for the Farmers

Ugpara is a small village located in the northern part of Bangladesh. Ugpara is under Gouripur sub-district of Mymensingh district in Bangladesh. Surya Begum is a housewife and a mother of three children who lives in Ugpara. Surya has two daughters and one son. Her husband is a poor farmer.

“My husband can’t afford the expenses of our family comprised of five members. Even he can’t afford the educational expenses of our children. I want to educate my children so they can get a good job in the future. I don’t like to see them struggling for living like us,” said Surya.

Surya was looking for doing something aiming to contribute her family financially. In the rural areas of Bangladesh, it’s difficult for the women to figure out a job by which she can earn and contribute to her family.

“I came to know about ADRA Bangladesh from my grandmother and took the membership of my village Mohila Unnayan Shomity in 2014. After being a member of the shomity, I understood that the shomity is helping the poor to overcome poverty through gradually changing of mentality and skill development. By depositing money, I started group activities and always participating in all meetings. ADRA project staff discussed different topics in the meeting which was relating to improving the livelihood. After a few days, ADRA organized a training on Vermicompost (an organic fertilizer) preparation and its impact on socio-economic development. I participated in the training and learned how to prepare Vermicompost,” Surya was explaining her perception of ADRA Bangladesh.

After accomplishing the training, Surya started to produce Vermicompost. Nowadays, she is producing 40-50 kg of Vermicompost every month. She is using that compost in homestead vegetable garden and getting optimal production.

“Since I was using organic fertilizer for producing vegetables, there’s a high demand for my vegetables in the market. But I didn’t get the right price in our local market. One of my neighbors advised my husband to go to Upazila market to sell the vegetables for a better price. My husband was influenced by the advice and discussed with me. Then both we came up with a decision and took a loan of Tk. 5000 and purchased a rickshaw-van to sell the vegetables by going to the Upazila market with ease,” Surya was unfolding the magical turn of her life.

Surya and her husband are now selling vegetables flawlessly by using their rickshaw-van in the Upazila market and earning a good sum of money. Now, they can fulfill all the basic needs of their family and can bear the educational expenses for their children.