Joyful mixed crops in winter
Nayakrishi villages are very colourful during winter season. From the beginning of the winter season as early as December- the Bangla month of Poush, the fields are yellow with mustard crops. While commercial mustard growing is done mostly as a monocrop, Nayakrishi farmers have a mix of vegetables and spices. Cultivated crops of radish, onion, garlic – and a combination of uncultivated partner crops are mixed and grown, so that different crops do not compete for the same nutrition from the soil and are designed to prevent pest attacks. This creates a beautiful biodiverse field.
Mixed cropping or multicropping is one of the ten principles of Nayakrishi farming. This practice mirrors the diversity of the forest and retains and enhances soil fertility and productivity. It is a risk management strategy as well. The ten principles which start with no use of pesticides can be achieved through the strategic crop mixing to manage pests.
Crops such as coriander (Coriandru (Read More)
Crop Diversity in Nayakrishi Farmers’ field in Delduar, Tangail
There is significant natural variability of plants and animals in Delduar Upazila, Tangail district. Farmers have been growing varieties of crops based on topography of land and matching seasons. There are crops round the year either on the plains, high, medium, low lands or in the homestead areas. Men and women both contribute their best for maximum agricultural outputs. However, women play the key role of seed collection, drying, cleaning and preserving. The maintenance of seed wealth is ensured in the hands of the women. The farmer use organic manure for raising crops. The Nayakrish farmers grow season based crops. They grow different crops in rabi, kharif-1 and kharif-2 seasons. However, there are some varities of vegetables round the year.
Crops in the field in late March
Some crops of rabi season are being harvested and other crops of kharif-1 season being sown in Nanduria, Gorashin, Binduria, Nallapara, Goziy (Read More)
Babupur: A Nayakrishi Village
The Settlement:
Babupur village belongs to Deoli union, Delduar upazila of Tangail district. The village lies about 4 km south of the district headquarters of Tangail. It is about 2 km west of Delduar upazila Town. The Dhaleshari River passes by 6 km west of the village. Alongijani, a rivulet of the Dhaleshsari passes by the east side of the village. The area is generally served by seasonal flooding in normal years. The homestead areas stand on raised land above the normal flood level.
The villagers have small houses with tin, bamboo or jute stick walls and tin roofs on homestead land. The homestead areas are generally planted with a number of trees including juckfruit, mango, banana, bamboo, etc.
Household and Population:
Babupur has a population of 1446 in 241 households (B B S, 1996). About 75% of the farmers of the village are Nayakrishi farmer (Read More)