Big Ideas: “How to grow food in land people think is useless”, With Nazmul Islam Chowdhury

My “Big Idea”, was that perhaps a food crop could be grown on barren sandbars. Though there was opposition to this from my immediate superior, I fought for it, and then other experts validated it. At the end of the day, other crops than pumpkins are being grown, and the farmers are even able to increase their livelihoods by selling some of what they make. We are now working to establish a legal framework so this idea is sustainable into the future. Also, there are many other countries and areas of countries that are impacted by monsoon rains. This is an exportable idea.

As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Nazmul Islam Chowdhury, an official with the NGO Practical Action in Bangladesh. For 27 years, Chowdhury has worked with the international agency Practical Action. During the course of his work, he came upon an innovative way…