Born to a poor family in a remote char area of Bangladesh, Abu Kalam has developed resilience to climate vulnerability through innovative farming under the ICBAAR project of UNDP.

Living in an island  surrounded by mighty river Meghna  for his entire life, Abul Kalam could never imagine that the saline land there could  bear harvest just like normal farmlands.  

“Nothing could grow here. Everything would die because of the soil’s salinity,” said the 70-year-old man who is now reaping the benefits of an innovative method of farming to make it happen – thanks to the ‘Three Layer Vegetable’ farming project of Integrating Community-based Adaption into Afforestation and Reforestation (ICBAAR) programme. 

Abul Kalam was born to a poor family in Noakhali’s Hatiya upazila – a remote island in the sea, and one of the most climate vulnerable areas along the coast of Bangladesh. Throughout his life, Kalam has had to battle extreme climate events. Poverty did not allow him to get proper education during childhood. Like any other typical char inhabitant, he had to live a life of hardship and poverty.

“I tried to do so many things in life. Before, I used to catch fish. Then for some days I tried to do business. But business was bad and I was soon buried under a large amount of loan – Tk 3.5 lakh. I left the village where I born looking for some fortune. But nothing worked for me. I returned, tried to do small business and was earning from that,” Abul Kalam says.

Now, his life has turned around with help from the ICBAAR programme, supported by United Nations Development Programme. Trained under the project, he now uses only four decimals of land to produce three types of vegetables simultaneously and lead a decent life with his family of eight.

The ICBAAR programme is aimed at reducing climate vulnerability of local communities along the coastal region through participatory planning, community-based management, integration of climate resilient livelihoods and diversification of species in afforestation and reforestation programme. Including Hatiya, the programme is being implemented in eight upazilas of five highly vulnerable coastal districts of Bangladesh – the country that has around 35 million people living in the highest level of climate risks; and facing the risk of over 25 million being displaced by 2050 due to climate change.

The programme is executed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with support from UNDP and Global Environment Facility (GEF). Several ministries and departments of Bangladesh government – Ministry of Environment and forest, Ministry of Land, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh Water Development Board, Department of Disaster Management, and Forest Research Institute – are helping to implement the programme.

The ‘Three Layer Vegetable’ farming approach under the ICBAAR programme is especially helpful for poor people in coastal districts, as this approach allows maximum utilisation of small pieces of land.

In the last eight months, Abul Kalam has produced a variety of vegetables using this method of farming -- radish, coriander, eggplant, tomato, bitter gourd, snake gourd, bottle gourd and chili. He earned around Tk 50,000 from the harvest, and he’s looking forward to a bumper harvest in the upcoming monsoon season. 

He is now confident that he will be able to continue farming using this innovative process without any further assistance. His success and visible development in living standard is inspiring others as well, and Abul Kalam is more than happy to help. 

The success is also to be attributed greatly to the greenbelt along Hatiya’s coastline, as Abul Kalam acknowledges. The greenbelt, which works as a shield against natural disasters and saline sea water, is a lifesaver for the coastal community.

Kalam said, “The forest stops the cyclones, and storm surges which bring saline water. It is benefitting everyone greatly. If the forest was not here, there would be no vegetation here, and this would have been a barren piece of land.”

ICBAAR programme promotes community stewardship of coastal greenbelt through establishment of co-management and linking that to local people’s livelihood through access and benefit-sharing mechanism.

The project is carrying out mangrove reforestation of about 650 hectares of land with 12 different species to increase resilience of the coastal greenbelt. Mangrove plantation is considered to be an effective measure in reducing vulnerabilities and hazards of extreme weather events.