How Bangladesh s Flood-Prone North Is Using Corn to Lift Itself Out of Poverty
Corn needs less water and brings in more money than other staple crops in northern Bangladesh.
By Mosabber Hossain
LALMONIRHAT DISTRICT, Bangladesh, May 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) The people of Shaniazan union, in northern Bangladesh, still remember when a river burst its banks in the early 1990s and engulfed their homes, leaving the land too sandy to grow traditional rice and tobacco crops.
Back then, they desperately struggled to feed their families.
Today, the collection of villages in Lalmonirhat district has a bustling marketplace, well-built homes with TVs inside and solar panels on the roofs, and thriving fields of a crop that pulled the community out of poverty: corn.
FEATURE-Corn crop feeds prosperity in Bangladesh s flood-prone north Reuters 1 hr ago Melting mountain ice leads to more severe, frequent flooding Farmers have produced a record 1 million tonnes of maize this fiscal year State backs corn farming to replace thirstier crops, meet demand
By Mosabber Hossain
LALMONIRHAT DISTRICT, Bangladesh, May 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The people of Shaniazan union, in northern Bangladesh, still remember when a river burst its banks in the early 1990s and engulfed their homes, leaving the land too sandy to grow traditional rice and tobacco crops.
Back then, they desperately struggled to feed their families.
Today, the collection of villages in Lalmonirhat district has a bustling marketplace, well-built homes with TVs inside and solar panels on the roofs, and thriving fields of a crop that pulled the community out of poverty: corn.
Thomson Reuters Foundation, Farmers fill up burlap sacks with corn from their fields. Photo: tanvir ahammed
The people of Shaniazan union, in northern Bangladesh, still remember when a river burst its banks in the early 1990s and engulfed their homes, leaving the land too sandy to grow traditional rice and tobacco crops. );
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Back then, they desperately struggled to feed their families.
Today, the collection of villages in Lalmonirhat district has a bustling marketplace, well-built homes with TVs inside and solar panels on the roofs, and thriving fields of a crop that pulled the community out of poverty: corn. Once I was landless and a rickshaw-puller, said Hasen Ali, 50, who spent more than two decades in the capital Dhaka scraping together an income before returning to his farm about five years ago.