Food and Economic Security through Homestead Vegetable Production by Women in Flood Affected “<i>Char</i>” Land

Abstract

The study was conducted in several “Chars” (Char Kachadia, Char Gangaproshad, Char Alokdia and Char Tishondi) in Shibalaya Upazilla under Manikganj District to: investigate the livelihood situation and socio-demographic characteristics of the Char women, identify the current crop production practices adopted by them and to highlight the most likely months for food insecurity along with main problems regarding homestead vegetable production by the respondents. A total of 150 respondents were selected using simple random sampling technique. The study was conducted during August 2009 to February, 2010. It was revealed that most of the respondents were middle aged, had medium to big families, were mostly illiterate to having primary education. They had an average homestead vegetable farm of 6.71 decimals. It was found from the study that most of the respondents spent 3.20 hours/day for cultivating vegetables in their homestead areas. Different types of vegetables were being grown by the respondents including spinach, bitter gourd, cowpea, pumpkin, okra, water spinach, pointed gourd in the summer season and red amaranth, brinjal, tomato, bean, radish, pepper in the winter season. All these vegetables provided food security as well as economic security to the respondents who pointed out that March and September were the most food insecure months. The findings also indicated that the respondents faced several problems like lack of capital, lack of irrigation water during dry season and lack of good quality seeds. Keywords: Food and economic security; homestead; vegetable production; char land DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v9i1-2.9478 The Agriculturists 2011; 9(1&2): 44-53