Mofiz is a typical Bengali farmer. He lives with his mother, wife and son in the western edge of the tropical floodplains that 153 million Bangladeshis call home. Like generations before him, he is an expert in rice cultivation. However, despite the fertility of the soil, many local conditions leave the majority of Bangladeshis entrenched in poverty.

Frequent flooding and cyclones, poor education and lack of accessible health care are part of the reason for this poverty. Bangladesh also faces severe overpopulation. Like many other village farmers, Mofiz only has just over one acre of land to cultivate rice for his own family with, hopefully, enough extra to sell for income.

So Mofiz, and many farmers like him, are not motivated to take risks or experiment with a variety of cultivation practices. Because of fear of failure, most rely on techniques practiced for generations—even if these do not result in the maximum utilization of resources.

Increasing profits

SIM’s Community Development Project (CDP) works with farmers like Mofiz to provide training that will give them sustainable income and help them work their way out of poverty. Through years of experience on our demonstration farms, CDP has developed vegetable cultivation practices that result in greater profits for our partner farmers.

Mofiz joined CDP’s partner farmer program in May 2008. Since that time he’s had weekly visits from a staff member and receives ongoing training in making the most of his small amount of land. In the past, Mofiz only used a small portion of his land to cultivate vegetables. In 2009 he started intensive vegetable gardening on one-third of an acre. This was an increase of approximately 250 percent from his previous vegetable cultivation practices.

He planted okra, red spinach, and varieties of amaranth in the summer months, and in the profitable winter vegetable growing season, he grew cabbage and cauliflower. By the end of the year he earned a profit of approximately US $600. In previous years, vegetable cultivation only resulted in a yearly income of about US $100.

	Mofiz and his bull.

Mofiz received a bull last year as part of the CDP livestock distribution program. Through this program, CDP provides for the full price of the purchased livestock, which gives our partner farmers access to an additional source of income generation. Since the livestock profits are shared, this program also allows CDP to generate a portion of the funds required to continue its activities.

Mofiz was responsible for rearing the bull over an approximate six-month period. During this time, he provided all of its food and care, and any medical costs were shared with CDP. When the bull was sold, it generated a profit of approximately US $100. Of this, US $40 was returned to CDP and the remainder was given to Mofiz to allow him to further strengthen the position of his family.

SIM staff live out the love of Christ among the local people of the Kushtia area. We want to see the lives of the people transformed in every dimension, so that they may have hope in this life and the next.

*Note: This article was originally published in Serving In Mission Together, issue 128.