Yahoo TV

STORY: Location: Nazirpur, Bangladesh

These ‘floating farms’ are an old method of farming in flooded areas

Farmer Mohammad Mostafa has revived his forefathers' farming practice

of growing crops on rafts as rising seas and storm flooding threatens farmland

[Mohammad Mostafa, Farmer]

“When I was a boy, this area was dry land, we used to play in the fields and grow rice. But with the water levels rising in both the sea and the river, water started to accumulate here, so we can’t cultivate crops any more. I have been growing seedlings on floating beds for the past five years, growing seedlings of different vegetables.”

The rafts are woven from the stems of invasive hyacinths

They take two months to make and need to be replaced after each harvest

The 200-year-old technique was adopted by farmers in the flooding season

The flooding season used to last about five months each year

Nowadays it can last up to 10 months and more land is being flooded