The final word for this blog

I have arrived home, the snow is falling and it is cold here.  A true welcome back to Canada!

This was a great experience and I truly hope that the project continues with our recommendations and that they make a difference in the long run.  Our team discussed if we would ever go back to Bangladesh to see the outcome in a few years time (because things will take time).  Most of us said yes, myself included.  Bangladesh has so much to offer and what we might consider a small change in our North American lives can be a huge change for Bangladesh.  One thing I firmly understand is just how lucky we are and how great we have it in Canada.  The things that I worry about should not be worth worrying about at all compared to so many other lives in this world and what they face.

And with that, I am drawing this blog to a close.  I am not great at goodbyes, so I will just finish this blog to become a shout out for my wife and her blog as she has a month left in Nepal with her masters research.  So for a well written agricultural blog with some great photos as well, please check it out at ashleynepal.blogspot.com

Thanks everyone for reading along with what I have been up to for the past little while...

It takes a community

My time to reflect on what I have been doing for the last month is upon me.  Tomorrow I should be landing in Canada but I will continue to ponder what I have been a part of.  For the past 30 days I have been working and living closely with a number of people and now that I am going to be on my own it will really contribute to this reflection.

To summarize the key element of what we presented, it all revolves around getting a strong social structure in place in the villages first.  Without that, it continues that it is each smallholder for themselves to continue being price takers to the market.  This has such an impact. From the Canadian perspective, I take for granted that we are represented by our local municipal government and I can just drive over to an office at any point and let them know my thoughts.  If I am unhappy, I can vote differently the next time.  If I want a strong voice, I can talk to my Grain Farmers of Ontario representative or email any number of people in the industry and have my voice heard.  But I can do all of these things because well before my time, people worked hard to organize themselves and put a system in place.  I am not saying it always works, but at least there is a system.

This is simply not the case for the smallholder in our villages.  They don't understand how to work together and are just in the forming stage of learning what this can offer them.  After this is in place, then the next elements of our idea can take shape and this revolves around better understanding and safer use of products (man made or natural) and working together to aggregate their crop outputs to have a stronger voice with a buyer (whether local or export).  This concept isn't rocket science but the execution is where the success or failure will be decided.  I have learned that there is no shortage of ideas that have been developed but it is the execution through the NGO's or their partners that is the final determination.  And as always there is not an endless well of money, so getting it right as soon as possible will help to provide more desire for scaling up to more villages.

     

Another key element is that the many stakeholders need to be on board with the idea or it will crumble.  So with that we had many validating meetings before the final presentation.  I feel very positive that we laid out a solid plan that will make a difference, but like everything in life, we have to keep pushing to make sure that it stays top of mind with our on the ground partners as we all leave Bangladesh.

Lucky for us we have a great on the ground project manager!  Kafil was with our team from the start and he put up with all the challenges that our team provided and he taught us so much about life in Bangladesh, facilitated our meetings, gave us fantastic translation and guided us to consider how important the social aspect plays in everything we would do.  He also kept us safe which I know my family is very thankful for!

 

Holy crop! what I saw in the fields

I have been in Bangladesh for 29 days - and I know that because I have a 30 day VISA and have to leave tomorrow.  This past 4 weeks has been a real whirlwind and I wanted to share a summary of the farming that I have witnessed compared to what I know and see back in Ontario.  And as a Certified Crop Advisor, I have been able to 'geek' out on the differences and what they are growing.  It was really interesting, so here we go!

Crops are grown year round in many parts of Bangladesh.  There could be up to 4 crops in a year, but there is at least two crops in a year.  When I would talk with the smallholders, I would share with them that I am a farmer too and they would be surprised that I only grow one crop a year, but when I showed them pictures of snow from Grey/Bruce County, they understood.

Cropping rotation

Most common is rice followed by rice - 2 crop

Rice - potato - rice - 3 crop and quite common in Rangpur district.  I have also seen mustard substituted for potato.  And there can also be a veggie crop if short season rice is used instead of a potato crop.

And in some places short season rice - potato - mung bean - rice

Soil preparation

After rice is harvested, they might send a cow or two (or goats) to graze down the remaining straw that they didn't remove.  Then I have seen three ways to till the ground - manual with a hoe, with a cow or with a machine.  And in terms of what usually happened most, it was manual.

I did see the odd tractor around but never by a smallholder (2.5 acres or less).

Soil type/fertilizer

No stones, very low organic matter (less than 1 %) and no soil testing being done.  Manure is preferredn over fertilizer  but it completes with manure being used as a fuel source for burning in the home.  So when they do not have manure they switch to using man made fertilizer like urea and TSP.  But this is expensive and for the most part it is not optimally applied when spread by hand.

When manure is applied, it is usually piled in little spots and then worked in by hand (literally by hand)

Crops in the field

This is the dry season, so rice is just finishing up (or if it is a shorter season rice, is already off).  In the dry season, I am seeing many crops.  Anything planted is again done by hand as in the case with potatoes.

There are a lot of different types of gourds - Bitter gourd (below) and bottle gourd are two popular ones

Brinjal (eggplant variety) is just in harvest now and in the photo below it is being prepared for shipping to market

Also, yard long bean, which I have certainly seen around markets

There is so much opportunity in Bangladesh but a very long way to go as each village has its own set of challenges and there are so many villages.  Farmers don't want their kids to be farmers here because they are not breaking out of their poverty cycle with farming at a smallholder perspective.

Tomorrow, I will touch on some of our recommendations that we put in from our month long project.

Dhaka market - not for the faint of heart!

Alright, so I did make it to the one of the local markets in Dhaka that just happens to be within walking distance from this hotel and is considered one of the biggest in Dhaka.  This city is around 15 million people with very limited city planning and with that comes a real hodge-podge of big buildings and then small markets and then shacks and then a hotel.  So it seems completely normal to have a huge open air market right across from a major hotel.  And this is a serious market.  

What do you want?  You can buy it if it is a basic good - wood, unprocessed food, containers etc.  They have it.

I ended up going to this market 3 times today because I figured out what it had to offer and then brought more of my team back to see it because it was just so interesting.

Keady Sale is our weekly farm sale back home and it is every Tuesday in the summer.  Fresh fruit and fresh veggies are there at Keady in addition to some mennonite pies, maple syrup, crafts, kettle corn (mmmmm), and then of course the cattle and ducks and pigs that are for sale.

This market is like that but so different.  It is every day except Tuesday, it has the basics, but their build is that it also has the fresh cuts of meat, because they kill the chickens, fish and goats right there on site.  This tour was not for the faint of heart (keep that in mind as you look at these photo's), so be prepared for the photos.  And as you can imagine the aroma of this market was unique to say the least.

Chickens everywhere.

And they kill them on site and throw the parts they don't want on the street and then they burn those parts to the best of their ability.  

Once you get inside the building, there are veggies everywhere, and paper and salt and rice.

This is a busy place and the pictures can't capture just how much trade is going on here.  From here I ventured to the fish and goat area.

I have some great videos from this time.

And here are the goats tied up.  They seemed very passive and I wondered if they knew what was coming, but somehow I don't think so.

The Bangla people are very inviting and happy to show you what they have and are fine with having their picture taken.  I have become much more comfortable with talking with strangers whereever I am and asking to take their photo.  It really is a treat to make these connections.  I can walk along and hear "Hello Brother, where are you from?" and I will just say back, "Brother nice to meet you, I am from Canada or Amar desu Canada".  The basic Bangla I have learned seems to really impress people and they are surprised to hear that I have been in Bangladesh for a month( it also means it is harder to pull a fast one on me!).

Back to the outside and into spices and clothes and other things (like wood, knives, containers etc)

I don't know why, but I just love these markets!  The sites, the smells (good and bad), the commerce, the people.  It is just so exciting!  When I get back home next week and am just another person going about my life, it is going to be hard not to just strike up a conversation with a stranger - and maybe I should do that more in life....everyone has an interesting story to tell if I just take the time to stop and listen every once in a while.

Shop till you drop

Before coming here, I had heard there wouldn't be many touristy things to spend money on.  And outside of buying clothes, that is probably correct.  The women in our group have been buying fabric and getting different outfits made.  However, I have had a hard time finding clothes that fit here.  In Bangladesh size I would be an XXXL and it is hard to find that size.  I have purchased a couple of lungi's which are the common bottoms of most men on the street or out in the country (I will have to get a photo taken with mine on) and that has been it.

But what is really exiciting for me is going to the market to see what is for sale....and there are many different things for sale but most revolve around food -  meat or veggie or fruit or salted meat or candy. The last night in Rangpur, I went to a night market for a few minutes to check out what was for sale.

Fresh fruit and a lot of it is imported as fruit isn't a common crop here.

Different seeds to buy for next season's crop.

Most of the above shobji (vegetables) are grown locally.  Yard long bean, brinjal, bitter gourd are a few that I have eaten here and are in the photo.

Fish is the main protein source and this market has a large fish market component - since it was end of day, there weren't many fish left.

But the dried fish guy had plenty of selection and was happy to have it his picture taken.  You can imagine the different smells in the market!

Now that I am in Dhaka, and it is my last weekend, I hope to make it to another market to take some more pictures of what is for sale.  But it will have to be day market pictures as there is certainly a different feel to Dhaka back markets!

Quick Security Update

Hello everyone

Yesterday half of our group was moved back to Dhaka.  The hartal's have become much more frequent as the local courts are convicting the 'ringleaders' from the 1971 Liberation War.  In the last two weeks two have had guilty rulings with punishment of death and one that was already on death row died of old age in jail.  This has really raised the political fervour here such that a hartal has been called every day starting last Wednesday, except Fridays (mosque day) and Tuesday (national holiday).  Therefore half of our group (myself included) flew back to Dhaka and on Friday the other half will travel. It isn't because flights are cancelled, it is because it is very difficult to get to or from the airport and the strikers often target vehicles and their occupants.

Dhaka has seen some protests in the form of marches, burning of buses and detonating of improvised bombs.  But we have not seen anything like this and we continue to just stay in our hotel for safety (metal detector and bag check to get in to the hotel and security is definitely packing heat).  Before leaving for Bangladesh, I notified the Canadian government of my travel and they have been very good about emailing me updates and notifying me of when I should stay hunkered down and when it is safe to move around.  

So with that, I am safe where I am and even if a hartal is called next week on the day we fly out, we have all agreed to head to the airport very early to avoid an issue and just wait it out at the airport till our flight is ready.

Facetime Part 2

There have been so many great photo opportunities here and many of them are with the differnt styles of dress or the stoic look many provide when you take their photo.  On top of that is the interesting  use of red hair dye.  It is the colour of choice with many men when they wish to dye their hair...and their moustaches...and their beards.  I have asked if there is a significance (religious, Bangladesh history) to it but the answer I have back is 'nope the men just all use red'.

And with that, I present to you another selection of the great people I have met here in Northern Bangladesh.

I liked this man - he was present at our interview with a local shopkeeper and he came in to buy some product for his rice.

Proud Farmer

This photo is going to be one of my favorites for a long time! 

No faces in this one, but I really enjoy the colours and patterns.  The women in our group have bought some really great material here.  My purchases have been a bit more understated in colour.

And I leave you with one of the reddest of the red dyes.  We had a great discussion with this man as he was one of the elders of the village and had many good comments for us. 

Saying goodbyes

On Saturday, since we were allowed to leave as there wasn't a strike, we went back to our villages to say goodbye and drop off some gifts for the host family.  Matteo and I had to apologize profusely that we wouldn't have breakfast but we had already eaten and we wanted to stay safe!

We asked to have a photo with our 'Aunty' but she didn't feel comfortable having her picture taken with two men and not her husband there, so she asked her father-in-law to have his picture taken with us instead.  This was the first time we actually got to speak with the grandfather as we had our translator with us, so we got hear a bit about his life and thank him for letting us stay with his family.  Also, I have never felt so tall as when I was beside him.

After this, 'Aunty' found her son, so she was more inclined for a photo with us, which was really nice.  We presented a few more gifts and headed out for a walk for one last time around the village.

From here it was off to see some more fields of potatoes going in - again all work by hand or with simple tools for hilling.  They had just spread some fertilizer on the field as well.  This field was around 1/10th of an acre.

We spoke with a few of the local farmers in the next village to discuss their biggest challenges in growing potatoes and discussed other solutions that might help them be more successfull.  By the time we finished the chat we had attracted a good crowd so I asked if I could take their photo and they were very happy to oblige.

As we walked back a bunch of children were crowding around a courtyard and I got to see a happy mother feeding her little pups!  She didn't seem too shy so I just took her picture without asking.

In the end we finished up another round of group interviews in this village, which was much more remote than the other villages we had spoken with.  There was no access to power and no toilets in any homes. 

The picture above illustrates making due with what you have.  Here they have used animal manure and dried it on sticks.  They then use this as additional burning fuel for heat and cooking.

This village was an example of they knew they needed more but just didn't know how to mobilize to work towards it.  When asked if they wanted toilets the answer was completely honest and true - if you spend money on toilets you don't have money to eat, so you wouldn't need the toilet anyway.  We shared with them some ideas (as we are now at the stage that we have interviewed more than 200 growers and many other players in this chain) about what we are going to propose the local NGO partner could implement after we leave as a long term plan and the main speaker for the group seemed happy with this.  

This is the last large focus group as we are finishing up our last week in the northern part of Bangladesh and now it is about consolidating the information we have gathered.  I am truly going to miss these large group meetings as the people of the villages are so welcoming and willing to share from their lives.

Stand by me

Do you remember the scene from the Stand by Me movie when they were on the train tracks and the train started coming and they had to run?  I had a similar experience this weekend!  But before I get to that story, an update on the current situation here in Bangladesh.  

We have had 3 hartel (strike) days this week but they did not strike on Friday or Saturday this week which was good because it meant we could leave the hostel and get out.  But two things have since happened.  The first is that they have called for hartel's tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday, so we are back on lock down.  And the second is that there has been a massive countrywide power outage for most of today.  Thankfully this place has a back up generator that has been purring along.  The smell of diesil is in the air, but the power just kicked back in and I could hear cheers from the street as most do not have generators and since it is night it is good to have the power back.

Back to the train.....yesterday we asked if there was anything we could see that would be interesting but not too far away.  Our volunteer coordinater let us know that there isn't really anything touristy in the area (for that matter in most of Bangladesh according to Lonely Planet and TripAdviser as well) but they did build a new bridge just outside of the city that we could go see.  He promised some fresh air with a breeze and less people, so that sold me on it.

Well, what was far more interesting than the new bridge was the close to 100 year old train bridge still in use that we could just walk on.

And we weren't the only ones it is a pretty common way to cross a very wide river (it is the dry season so it is mostly exposed riverbed).  Half way across we could hear a train coming and thought we must get to the otherside, but running on this track isn't really adviseable as there are a lot of spots were the bridge is falling apart (but if it holds the weight of a train it should hold me, right?)

Luckily for me the train was only going about 10 km per hour really it wasn't too bad!

 

Well we got to the other side and I met a cattle rancher who was on the lookout for his herd.

He eventually found them.

From here, we went for a further walk out to find some areas that would be flooded any other time of year and now people had moved in to grow some food and set up their homes.  These are considered landless and there is a large number of people whose lives are lived this way depending on the way the rivers move theland around.

We also found some fisherman  using many different styles but today was not a good fishing day.

On the way back, I could see and hear an emotionally charged soccer game going on underneath the new bridge (used for vehicles of all types). Game is hard to see but it is the top right of the photo below....of which I must say I really like this photo as it shows using any land available to grow a crop.  In the rainy season this would be all flooded.

And I met some more fisherman coming back from an unsuccessfull fishing day but they still seemed happy.

For a short 35 minute drive out of Rangpur, this is exactly what we needed to clear our minds and get a bit of fresh air too!