Finally, I see the sun. A plane carried me away from the pollution and chaotic overpopulation of Dhaka to the south, to Bandarban, a city in the famous Chittagong Hill Tracts where life is a just a bit slower and density is a bit thinner. A home to many indigenous ethnic minorities, several Burmese refugees (some 300,000) have migrated their way across the border into the CHT area. Beyond providing endless textiles of hand-woven blankets and vibrant saris of brilliance, this migration brings individual tales of toil and collective voices of need – a problem for the UN, Bangladesh and the locals who call the land their own.
A Denver-based NGO, International Development Enterprises (IDE), has taken the challenge of advancing progress in this disparate area, and they’re doing development in an innovative way. Paul Polak, founder and author of one of my now favorite book Out of Poverty, believes in the innate entrepreneurial spirit of individuals all over the world and its ability to empower the world’s poor to helpthemselves out of poverty.
IDE’s treadle pump irrigation product
Uchuno, a man with an insatiable smile and a quiet humility, shared his life. He was elected as an IDE Demonstrator Farmer to show off the effects of their new product, the Pressure Treadle Pump. The pump draws water from a nearby pond to a mechanical pump generated by the strength of Uchunu’s own legs, and pressurizes the water through a hose which can be sprayed over the entirety of his 3 acre plot of Papayas. After the initial investment of 5,000 Taka, Uchunu made 70,000 Taka from just the first harvest of papayas which take about 8 months to maturity. He makes 25 Taka per kilo of produce, which is picked up by a buyer from the city and taken to the market. He receives no microcredit (although IDE has payment plan options for their products) and is now paid in advance of the harvest because of his proven prudent farming practices.
Standing at the center of an overwhelming crowd of curious graduate students who most likely know very little about cultivating papayas in the degraded soils of rural Bangladesh, Uchunu’s infectious smile is bursting with gratification as we gaze over his flourishing farmland. IDE staff boast of his commendable work ethic and positive attitude to learn, patting him on the back as they translate “good man, good man”. His sheepish smile is the most genuine humility I have seen in a while. When I ask the name of his child, half-damp eyes accompany a gasp for air as he attempts to conveys his dreams for Maroma to be an English Teacher some day, maybe even a reporter for the newspaper to help tell the story of the Chittagong Hill Tract People.
I tread back across the fields of green, ogling the spontaneous growth of bananas and teek, and the perfection of symmetry in Uchunu’s Papaya grove. I’m inspired by his work ethic and abashed at my lack of connection to the food I eat everyday. I’m confounded at the possibilities of partnership with so many good humans living all over the world. Uchunu’s prospering produce is quickly navigating the seas of archaic yet swift word-of-mouth rural communication, inspiring the likes of six neighboring farmers to cultivate Papaya with IDE irrigation products, while more than 200 farmers in the region are on a waiting list for the new products. IDE has achieved its goal of community-based, client-driven, market-based improvements in agricultural productivity for small-acreage farmers in rural Bangladesh. I eagerly await the next installment of IDE’s projects empowering the poor.
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