Improving Home Gardening Techniques for Small-scale Farmers in Bangladesh under the Farmer-to-Farmer Program

This extension report describes expert consultation and training conducted on home gardening techniques in Bangladesh under Farmer to Farmer (F2F) program. The assignment was carried out in Khulna district of Bangladesh using formally structured training activities in a classroom setting with participants receiving face-to-face or hands-on technical assistance. The main objectives of the assignment was to conduct training in sustainable household vegetable gardening techniques as well as train host institute's extension agents and field assistants for replication of training thereby multiplying impact to more households. Basic concepts of home gardening techniques were delivered. Topics included seed quality, seed saving methods, transplants, organic soil preparation, integrated farming techniques, hydroponic techniques, plant disease identification and eradication. Simple home recipes of botanical pesticides demonstrated including neem leaf extract, garlic extract, compost tea, vegetable oil and soap. A method on enrich compost making in the field demonstrated. Trainees prepared a compost bin (3’x 3’x4’) with bamboo sticks and used locally available materials on the farm such as dry leaves, grasses, tree branches, rice straw,  farm manure. Six farmers’ groups with over three hundred farmers including male and female and eight extension agents received classroom and hands on training. It appeared that farmers needed further training in organic farming and sustainable cultivation of vegetables.