Overall activities of a project entitled “The Making Markets Work for Jamuna, Padma and Teesta Chars (M4C)” have been continuing in four upazilas here since June 2012 creating positive impacts among char dwellers.
The objective of the project is to unlock the potential of the chars by facilitating the growth of sectors relevant for the poor char households in terms of productivity, profitability and employment generation, the project official sources said.The M4C project designed for five years is being implemented by Swiss Contact in consortium with Practical Action in the selected chars under Sundarganj, Sadar, Fulchhari and Saghata upazilas with the financial support of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.The M4C project, which runs in partner with a range of private and public sector organizations to facilitate local market systems ensuring sustainable and pro-poor impact on the chars, is working with product sectors such as maize, chili, jute and cross-cutting sector such as char transport. As part of the project activities, over 8,000 hectares of char land owned by 3,500 contract growers were brought under maize farming during the current season and the maize fields had taken greenish looks which gives the farmers desired output like the previous year.Earlier, need base training was also provided to the contact growers for maize cultivation on the char land successfully in batches at the initiatives of five maize contractors-Mohirul Islam, Komor Uddin, Aslam Hossain, Akter Hossain and Anwar Hossain.The contract growers were imparted training on different issues like land preparation and soil treatment, using of balanced fertilizers, seed sowing, irrigation, weeding and pesticide application, harvesting and drying are being discussed elaborately to succeed the maize farming in chars, said Md. Elias, Operations Officer- DRR of the project.Besides, the maize contractors also provided inputs supports worth Taka 25 lakh to the contract growers so that they could farm the yield on the char land without any economical troubles and sell their produce to the contractors after harvest, he also said.Capacity development incharge of the M4C project Utpal Kumar Dutta said the project was helping the char dwellers create and ensure sustainable market linkage with relevant market actors for quality inputs, knowledge and markets for better returns.Under the project, kheyaghat development works had also been continuing in the chars side by side with introducing a special vehicle – ‘Nasiman customized for chars’ – in project command areas of
the district in a bid to assist them to transport their agri product easily, he added. Similar activities were also being implemented at the selected chars
of other three districts-Bogra, Sirajganj and Jamalpur targeting the underprivileged and neglected char dwellers, he added. BSS, Gaibandha
