Baira : the floating gardens for sustainable livelihood

IUCN Bangladesh has undertaken this initiative in association with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) under the Sustainable Environment Management Programme (SEMP) in the Madhumati Floodplain. Under this project one of the interventions is to promote alternative livelihood options. Baira farming was one of the options suggested by the people of that area. Moreover, variations could be identified in this traditional cultivation system in different parts of the country, indicating baira cultivation to be in an evolutionary phase here. But the information on baira is not sufficiently documented in Bangladesh. The purpose of the present account is to illustrate the baira extension initiative taken under SEMP. This publication documents field observations, local knowledge and participatory planning and interventions to promote baira farming as an alternative livelihood option.