Strategies for fisheries management in flood prone areas, livestock shelters, feed and fodder banks, mass vaccination of livestock, etc
Small-scale homestead pen culture

Suitable options for Agriculture in flood prone areas: Agriculture is the primary and major occupation of the villagers. Almost every household depends on traditional methods of cultivation. But they feel their own practices and methods need to be improved through technological support as they are not being able to maintain the optimum production level and quality. Seed preservation is one of the major issues of the farmers living in flood prone areas. Each of the households involved in agriculture have their own seed preservation methods. They mostly preserve paddy, wheat, vegetables, onion, garlic etc. but, have to suffer loss almost every year due to floods, due to lack of proper seed preservation techniques and storage.

facilities. This in turn results in farmers becoming dependent on commercially available seeds and purchasing seeds from the market also becomes expensive for them, which interrupts normal production system especially for the poor farmers. Also through a complete participatory needs assessment and technology development approaches with the communities, the project demonstrated some prioritised options in agriculture sectors with the aim to minimise risk of floods and continuation of production by adopting alternative measures during flood and secure food production. The options are: Homestead vegetable production through pit cultivation methods. “Homestead vegetable production through pit culture” is an indigenous technique for growing vegetables and other plants and crops as soon as the floodwater recedes. Making a series of pits in homestead and placing organic manure or compost in water proof sacks inside the pits. Later the sacks were placed and the pits were covered with soil. This preparation remains under water during the flood and its fertility increases over the period. Therefore, once the flood water recedes, finding fertile plots for growing vegetables and plants is not difficult. This technique also used and tasted by ITDG-B particularly in sand bar for bulk production after flood. Seed production and preservation techniques: Seed production and preservation techniques included a series of activities to maintain good quality, germination rate, and to ensure locally available seeds in flood prone areas, which were included selection of seeds, harvesting, proper drying, packaging, storing, re-drying etc.

In Bangladesh, Pen is a kind of fence usually made of bamboo (locally called baba) it is generally use to protect pond embankment which has connection with open water body. The option has implemented to protect the entire embankment of the ponds. The fencing will stop the stocked fingerlings/fishes from escaping into the open floodwater. The design of the traditional pen fencing has been modified for the flood plain by placing a trap, which will entrap wild species from open water. Later the full-grown trapped fishes have consumed by the household while comparatively smaller fishes restocked in the pond for their further growth. Such fish culture technique in flood prone areas will encourage culture of fish during flood season and at the same time ensuring regular fish consumption of a household from wild catch while allowing smaller culturable species to grow in protected ponds, thereby addressing bio-diversity and conservation issues of open water fish species.

Trap pond management: Trap pond management is an artificially created environment by preparing bushes with tree branches. The bushes are used by wild species as shelter. The bushes also grow various algae, providing food to wild species. Trapping is a sustainable open water fishing technique vis a vis the use of current net as it acts as a mini sanctuary for small and large fishes before they grow to a reasonable size for catch, additionally it act as breeding ground of indigenous species.

Enhancement of wild catch through improved traditional gear: Since the cultivable lands remain under water for four to five months, trapping gear development can increase open water catch efficiency and can help the people without resource base to increase access to animal protein and earning opportunity during flood season. Traditional trapping gears are generally made of bamboo cans and net. Which locally called Doari, Darki etc. Traditionally it has one inlet called valve but it has modified and added three more inlets in the gear. This addition has increased the catch per unit effort. This gear has to placed in small canals with flowing water and the valves need to be facing the opposite direction of the water flow. In case of big water bodies such as river, bill, series of doari can be placed but close to embankment

Application of technical management of Livestock resource to reduce risk.: Livestock and poultry are important assets for the char dwellers and a major source of income. This sector significantly supplements their livelihoods to minimise losses in agriculture sector caused by floods. More or less every household in these areas rear livestock and poultry. According to the PRA findings on an average more then 80% households rear cattle, goat, chicken and ducks. Rearing cattle is an important economic activity for sale of milk and to fulfill festival demand. Sale of poultry product e.g. eggs, meat is an important source of additional income for women. The sector incurs losses as a result of high mortality rates, due to sudden disease attack in pre and post flood situation. Due to lack of fodder management it is difficult to keep the livestock healthy and manage their appropriate feed during flood. To address these major technical problems the project has identified and developed options for the improvement of the livestock sector in the selected flood prone villages. The interventions have implemented for the improvements of the sector with probable solutions, which were; Skill development training on feeds and disease management for poultry and livestock: Fodder is the main problem for cattle and goat during the flood season. The project has trained the community how to prepare and storage of fodder by using locally available items. Generally the straw was used to prepare emergency food. The straw were chopped into smaller piece and preserved in a waterproof polythene sac. During feeding the straw mix with molasses, ricebran, urea and lime to maintain the physical demand with the minimum supply of food

De-worming of the cattle and goat immediately before and after flood season ‰ Vaccination campaign for livestock in pre and post flood season Health management of animals particularly goat and cow is very difficult in flood prone areas. Susceptibility to disease during and after flood is very common and the percentage of mortality is very high. The project has implemented series of deworming and vaccination campaign to prevent and protect some of the common bacterial and viral diseases e.g. anthrax, PPR and black quarter found in flood prone areas. Through the assistance of local community extentionist and livestock department. The campaigns were organised pre and post flood situation

Support to develop commercial duck farming

These activities were carried out with the assistance of local service providers (RCE) to ensure continuos/long term support for the communities after project intervention

Diversifying opportunities in small enterprise sector during flood: Importance of small income earning activities in the livelihoods of rural people is immense. Almost each and every household carry out small on farm and off farm economic activities to complement their income from primary occupations, which for