Floating agriculture in Bangladesh

During our NbS workshop in Bangladesh, we learnt about floating agriculture – a traditional practice that is going to scale in Bangladesh, allowing farmers to maintain or increase agricultural productivity and nutritional diversity in the face of increased monsoon season flooding. It involves weaving together plants, most commonly the invasive water hyacinth, to form floating beds that rise and fall with the water level. The diverse crops planted in these beds avoid water logging and benefit from nutrient rich decomposing matter, reducing the need for chemical fertilizers. When the water level falls in winter, the beds are ploughed into the soil and used to grow winter crops. Read more here, and see floating agriculture in action in this video.