Homestead Farming System (HFS): A way to improve nutrition and income for the landless poor in southwestern Bangladesh

A joint Social Sciences and Crop and Environmental Sciences Divisions Seminar

By Kazi Kabir
Technical specialist
WorldFish Center
Bangladesh

1:30–2:30 P.M., Friday, 28 June 2013
SSD Conference Room, Drilon Hall, IRRI

Abstract:

Bangladesh is a predominantly agricultural country that has achieved impressive gains in food grain production in the last two decades and reached near self-sufficiency at the national level.

Unfortunately, the southwestern part of the country has been increasingly lagging behind the rest of the nation. A survey on homestead farming systems (HFS) was conducted between January to April 2012 in southwestern Bangladesh. It was found that the HFS is gender-friendly and is the easiest way for the landless poor to achieve food security.

The survey covered more than 1,200 households randomly selected from three southern districts and revealed that, on average, 49% of the people in the area live below the national poverty line; the national percentage is 40%.

More than half of the population in the area studied are functionally landless, and about 90% of them live below the national poverty line. These functionally landless poor have access to an average of 0.06 ha of land, 0.04 ha of which are homestead areas.

These poor people get much higher production per unit area from their homestead farm than from the field. Homestead products are mostly consumed by household members, which helps improve their nutritional status.

Intensification of HFS can help increase income of poor households in southwestern Bangladesh and improve their lives.