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Researcher: Ms. Priya Saha
About one-third of the 250 acres of Thether Char,
a low-lying char area outside the embankment and along
the river Boleshwar in Pirojpur District in the southwestern
region of Bangladesh has been degraded by soil salinity
affecting soil productivity. Resource constraints and
lack of initiatives of the owners of these lands belonging
to the poverty groups have inhibited their intention
to reclaim the degraded land, which, it is hypothesized,
could be used for productive purposes by constructing
'ghers'. The construction of 'gher' for
the productive use of land is not possible at the individual
household level leaving the only option of collective
or group approach. The resource poor farming community
of this saline zone has no prior experience of the group
approach and group-farming approach, which is likely
to turn into failure unless properly initiated. This
has generated the need for a pre-research activity aimed
at sharing knowledge and experience with the researchers
and practitioners of group farming approach in order
to orient the target group with the best practices of
group approach and to involve them in a participatory
process to identify research priorities and opportunities
for economic well being. The process is expected to
lead to the development of an action-research proposal
on 'gher' farming through group approach based
on the principles of natural resource management, people's
knowledge, resource tenure and governance.
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