Alpona Nafak from Kalmakanda, Netrakona
Victor Dibra lives at Kochugora village of Kalmakanda under Netrakona district. He is 74 years old having 4 children who have built their separate families after getting married. Today Victor Dibra lives alone but he still strong enough to earn his livelihood and practice sustainable agriculture. He was headmaster of the local school but could not hold his post due to false cases filed against him which made him imprisoned for several years.
However, after getting released from the prison he started to build a new life concentrating on growing vegetable, planting fruits and wooden trees, rearing livestock and planting betel leaves in his comparatively big amount of homestead and farm lands. He made the maximum use of his lands without leaving any inch of the lands fallow.
Victor Dibra farms different seasonal vegetable in his homestead without using any external inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The sustainable way of farming vegetable adopting organic way has made his vegetable popular among the people. He sells the vegetable in the market and sometimes he does not need to go to market as people come to his house for vegetable. Farming vegetable in an organic manner has not only earned him cash but also enabled him to meet the vegetable demand of his family. Besides, farming vegetable he also plants different trees and rear livestock.
Along with cultivating vegetable Victor Dibra also plant piper betel leaves beneath the trees of his homestead. This betel leaves can climb upon the trees. He also earns additional cash by selling the betel leaves in the market. He said, ‘I do not require land to plant betel leaves as I have some trees around my homestead and can transplant betel leaves seedlings beneath the trees and the betel leaves once get survived can climb upon the trees.’
Victor Dibra is now happy with what he achieves so far by making maximum use of his lands through cultivating seasonal vegetable in an organic way. He wants to forget what had happened with him the past and suggest people to make the proper use of their homestead and farm land for producing crops grain in a sustainable way.
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
