Shiblee’s uncommon sack farming technique ensures protection of hills, environment

The process of using sacks rather than excavating hills for cultivation earns him an international award in the field

Strata aligned in the gradual arch of a hill house carrots, ginger, potatoes, aubergines, chillies, and beans, among other vegetables, in white plastic sacks, being prepared to be sold fresh in the market.

Such “organic” cultivation does not require repeated excavation on the hills, nor the use of chemicals or pesticides.

Organic fertiliser helps good yield in phases with low maintenance.

It has been almost three years since Mostafa Shiblee began growing vegetables on the hill curves of Fatemanagar village in Khagrachhari’s Panchhari Upazila, even earning an international accolade for his method of using sacks rather than cutting hills for cultivation.

He says using sacks yielded him at least 3,000kg of vegetables a month, including but not limited to carrots, beetroots, potatoes, chilli, bitter gourds, beans, gourds, and aubergine.

Shiblee was born in Dhaka and completed his Honours and Masters degrees in English literature at Dhaka University. Alongside organic fertiliser and farming in the hills, he is currently linked to the tourism trade in Kuakata.

Speaking to bdnews24.com in Uttara on Mar 2, Shiblee insisted vegetables produced in sacks along the slope were much “safer” than those planted along the seams of a hill.

On how he came up with the idea, Shiblee said: “We run an agricultural farm at Fatemangar village in Khagrachhari. We mainly grow organic fertiliser, named ‘Khagrachhari Jaibasar’ [organic fertiliser]. It’s approved by the government’s agriculture ministry.

“We carry out tilling in the hills with a portion of the fertiliser. We own almost 60 acres of farmland. We initially thought of planting trees for fruits or wood in the space. Later we decided to grow vegetables for quick earning and began farming like the others around.

“We people of the plains went to the hills. Our enthusiasm did not match our education or preparation. Without any prior understanding, we got involved in different activities in the hills. One of them is farming.

“The way I began watching others was very futile. Like the others, we began growing vegetables by clearing out the weeds, completely baring the ground and tilling the soil. It was a taxing and expensive process.”

He adds: “What’s more harmful and painful is putting the hills in danger by growing vegetables this way. Weakening it like this caused the soil to wash away all the way down the hill with a huge stream during the rainy season.

“During the rainy season, if the soil is tilled after heavy rain, a moderate landslide would occur there. We saw the soil settle below and block the stream of water at the bottom of the hill, bringing things dangerously close to environmental hazards.

“We saw everyone engaging in work similarly harmful for the environment and the combined efforts of all were causing the hills, with their thousands of years of ecology, to gradually reach the cusp of destruction.

“So we began thinking what could be an alternative to this? What method of growing vegetables would not damage the hills? We knew that ginger and other vegetables were being grown in sacks in the plains and thought we’d bring this familiar technique to the hills and see how it worked out."

Shiblee said: “We were on it as soon as we thought about it and began making the plan a reality.

“Towards the end of 2022, we started growing vegetables in 2,500 sacks on the hill slope of our farm and yielded extraordinary results. We didn’t have to clear weeds as simply placing the sacks [on the hill slope] did the trick.

They used their own organic fertiliser and whatever pesticide or small amount of chemical fertiliser was applied remained in the sacks, he said.

The soil was not receding with the rain and the chemicals that mixed with the soil no longer did, not spoiling the water either, he added.

“The most important thing is that after placing the sack [in one place] once, we could harvest the plant and then use it there again for the second, third, fourth and even fifth time if the sacks can be properly managed.

“It means that it was cost-effective, good for preserving the environment, without the danger of landslides or water pollution. Crucially, we’re able to grow comparatively safer vegetables.”

After yielding good results the first time, Shiblee went for 5,000 sacks the next season.

“In the third and current season, the number of sacks reached 11,000. We’re happy with this result. Our organisation Shiblee Farms has been rewarded for farming in the hills.”

As recognition for his environment-friendly work in the hills, Shiblee received an accolade from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, or ICIMOD, based in Nepal, amounting to almost Tk 1 million.

The ICIMOD is an inter-state organisation consisting of eight countries near the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range ‒ Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan. It works on the agriculture of these countries and operates from Nepal.

More than 200 organisations from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India applied for the award, the Hindu Kush Himalaya Innovation Challenge for Entrepreneurs, or HKHICE. Of them, 11 privately-owned organisations received prizes, one of them being the Shiblee Farms.

“I first came to know about it from a friend of mine in BRAC. I applied then. Around three months later they selected me as a finalist. A month after that they told me in the mail that I was nominated for the award.”

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS?

“One of the main weaknesses in our ongoing activities is we’re overwhelmed with supplying water, can’t shake it with physical labour. It is very expensive to pump water from tube wells or to pump water from reservoirs using diesel,” Shiblee said.

"The worst crisis I face in my agricultural work is irrigation. I want to use the reward money to start a smart irrigation system.

“I’ll transform it to be powered by solar energy, which will ease the irrigation process and make it easier to cultivate on a larger scale."

Shiblee is disinclined to transport the vegetables he produces to Dhaka.

“We’ve listed 300 to 500 people in Panchhari, who will prefer to buy comparatively safer vegetables even if the prices are a bit high.

“Ours is comparatively safer as we’re not using chemicals directly, but we do use pesticides. So we don’t say it’s completely safe. The quantity of vegetables we produce, that’s our target.”

Shedding light on future plans, he said: “What struck us after receiving the award is that the goal we worked towards with immense faith and affection, if we wanted to make it a reality, we can’t limit it to this small farm.

“I want to encourage the farmers who still grow vegetables or do short-term agricultural work in the hills using the wrong traditional methods through this model.”

“This process is not too unfamiliar, more or less everybody knows that. But the fact that it prevents landslides, curbs soil pollution, comparatively very cost-effective - [it’s important to] explain these things to them through handholding, helping them start off with a little incentive and gradually promoting it so that people start cultivating [using this] on a larger scale.”

"At least we can save this region from landslides and water pollution while producing safer vegetables; that is our goal."

“We want to spread this method [of cultivation] with the help of [agriculture ministry].”

[Writing in English by Syed Mahmud Onindo