Shahana - Pumpkins Against Poverty
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Authors
Elizabeth Dunn
Issue Date
2015-08
Type
Language
en
Keywords
Food
Alternative Title
Abstract
Shahana lives in Mahipur, Bijoy Bandh in the Rangpur District of northwest Bangladesh. She is 36 and has 2 daughters. Her husband is a small trader. In earlier life she worked in the fields on her land but the river took the land and she has been displaced now 3 times. “My life was better when I was a child before my family lost their land to river erosion. But now at least we are making a good living by growing and Shahana cuts the pumpkins and removes the seeds. She leaves these in a basket to dry in the sun, taking care to keep her goats from eating them. She stores them in plastic water bottles. She used them to grow pumpkins herself and shares them with her family and neighbours. She grew 600 pumpkins last season, they sold half of these making 41,500 taka. Shahana received training in sandbar cropping and marketing as well as seed collection and storage.