SEHD has initiated organic farming (from 2009) in Rajghati, a small Garo village in the Modhupur sal forest in Tangail District (in the North-central region of Bangladesh) . Rajghati has 28 families—all Garos—who in the past were completely forest dependent. Now there is no forest around them. Most families have no savings and sell their labor on a daily basis to make a living. What used to be the forestland and their domain is banana and pineapple monoculture nowadays deluged with chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and growth hormones. Though it is a big challenge to introduce organic farming in the midst of huge plantation agriculture, controlled by rich and powerful outsiders, and the mindsets that come with it, SEHD has entered it in a small way by targeting smaller area like Rajghati first. SEHD has been working closely with villagers to introduce and encourage organic farming techniques.
A group of villagers, especially women, have been given training in organic farming skills in order to develop nursery of saplings, to make naturally rich compost (pit compost, quick compost, green manure, vermi compost, and liquid manure), to set up a bio-gas plant, etc. The participants have also been introduced to different types of medicinal plants of commercial value that SEHD has been raising at its nursery. The practice of organic farming will be gradually expanded into other forest villages.
Importantly, SEHD has studied the scope of organic farming on the land in the Modhupur sal forest villages that has been thoroughly despoiled by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and growth hormones. A dozen farmers of Rajghati and neighbouring village have initiated their own organic gardens of Aloe vera and a few other plants. SEHD is also establishing knowledge and learning center among the local communities in the Modhupur sal forest areas for everyone to learn about organic farming practices, natural history, indigenous culture, ecology, innovative ideas, etc.
