Floating Gardens – Prayas Programme

Floating Gardens for the Landless

Lakshmi Maharana, aged 35, is a resolute woman from the village Banbarada
of Sukal GP who is determined to augment her husband’s income as a
carpenter. She runs a family of six. She has two sons, aged 17 and 19 who are
still studying. Her parents-in-law also stay with her.

Hers would have been a happy family but

for the fact that her brothers-in-law were
determined to take over the family
property which they have. They also
refused to take care of their elderly
parents who are on the wrong side of 80
and completely dependent. Her husband,
Jharendra Maharana, aged 39, has borne
it all stoically. He has managed to keep
two rooms for himself in a tiny piece of
homestead land. He has taken in his
parents and looks after them as a dutiful
son should.

Jharendra works as a carpenter and earns around Rs. 7000.00 per month. His
expenses often overshoot his income. Even as he is desperately fighting court
cases to get back his agricultural land from his brothers, his wife Lakshmi is not
one to sit idle. She is a strong woman though she does not look it.

She took part in the Gram Prayas Committee (GPC) meetings where a
documentary on the floating garden concept was shown and IEC material was
provided to explain the concept. She became interested as she says, “I was
delighted that I could produce food without having to worry about land.”

She then attended two do-it-yourself training sessions held in the village on
designing and setting up a floating garden. “It was not so difficult,” she says,
“we took to it and prepared the beds from scratch. It gave us a lot of
confidence. The prospect of cultivating on a common water body was

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 Floating Gardens – Prayas Programme

appealing, particularly as the water body had been abandoned for decades due
to water hyacinth infestation.”

Beds are prepared on the water bodies which are made from bamboo and/ or
banana stems in a rectangular shape with an average size of 20ft X 5ft X 1ft
(LXBXH). The bed surface is prepared with water hyacinth dried in the sun and
inter-wined to form a strong mesh at the bottom. On this a 4 inch layer
mixture of silt + chopped water hyacinth leaves is made. The next 5 inch layer
is made of a mixture
of silt + vermi-
compost + compost/
farm yard manure.
The top layer is a 3
inch packing of
mixture of dry
leaves of
leguminous plants +
soil + silt. The total
bed is of 12 inches.

The idea is to grow

greens, spices and
leafy vegetables. Planting is preferred to be made on a rotational basis for
better nutrition management.

“Mr Jalandhar Sethy of the Gram Prayas Committee knew about our plight
and recommended my name for providing support for a unit. The staff of
Prayas were also very helpful,” she says.

“When ultimately we set up the floating garden it was much better than what
we had achieved during the training sessions. There was all round praise for
our efforts,” says Lakshmi with a coy smile.

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 Floating Gardens – Prayas Programme

We started the
first unit in May
2013 for which
we got a
support of Rs.
2000.00. In the
first reaping we
harvested two
types of greens,
koshala and
palanga. We
consumed it
ourselves for around 45 days by resorting to staggered harvesting. Next time
we planted khada saga and tomato. This too we consumed for around 60 days.
We were told we could sell the compost after the second bed but
unfortunately due to a sudden rain it got washed away.”

“Some support is needed till we can do it in a fairly large scale,” says Lakshmi.
“I and my husband toiled a lot in waist deep water. Our labour alone would be
worth Rs. 5000.00.”

“Next time I will go in for more beds and cultivate vegetables that I can also
sell. There are hidden benefits for this type of cultivation. For the beds and the
compost we needed to clear the water of hyacinth. Now the water is clean and
we are using it for drinking and cooking. Mosquitoes and other pests have
reduced. Our skin problems have come down.”

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