Jackpot!

Before the strike happened we were able to spend Monday traveling with a local NGO to look at the work that they have done with providing a market for farmers to aggregate their produce and sell from this hub.  This also provided them with a central area for learning about better agronomic techniques to use on their farms.  We drove to a part of Bangladesh I had not been to before and it seemed very wide open with larger fields and even the odd tractor on the roads.  But even a 50 acre field would be made up by 100 or more farmers.

This was a small set up for bottle gourd that the growers were now trying out in this area and it was proving to be a good alternate crop.

The man in the centre is the main organizer of this idea and really showed us an informative day.

Growers bring their produce together at the hub and then sell it in larger quantities to buyers that find it more worthwhile to come to one spot to buy in 'bulk'.

After this we had a good discussion about the positive impacts this has had in the village - comments that came back included they could improve their living conditions, plant better crops for the next season (upwards of 3 crops per year here) and feed their families a more nutritious diet.  This was one misconception I had for Bangladesh - I thought that there was a shortage of food.  However this is not the case, but having the variety to provide a proper diet is an issue, so with more production they can sell and buy other food they can't normally grow to then improve their overall diet.

After the meeting, it was a bit like the Pied Piper as we walked back to our vehicle with the most of the village following us.