The Monga Project in Bangladesh

Bangladesh — Assist rice harvest workers during the ‘Monga’ season when there is no work available. (3000 families)

Monga, a local term, means “near famine situation” which occurs every year during the Aman rice crop season, other than the planting time in August and harvest time in December, in the northern districts in Bangladesh.

The northwestern region of Bangladesh is the poorest part of the country as well as the most seriously affected monga area. 7 districts, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Rangpur, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon, are severely affected by monga.

Demand of labour in the agricultural sector is usually high during this rice planting and harvesting season. For harvesting, the daily labourers usually get a certain quantity of rice along with the daily wages. After the Aman season, most of the people have some rice to eat for a while, unless it has been used for paying off debts.

Millions of people in northern districts of Bangladesh depend totally on agriculture and the landless poor usually sell their labour in advance to survive during the monga period. During this period they survive on one or a half a meal/day unusually on food like millet, arum stem, leaves, or leaves of black gram.

Three thousand families affected by monga in Nilphamari district of Bangladesh will attain food security by participating in new, sustainable agricultural activities.

The beneficiaries have very small or no agricultural land holdings, so their homestead would be the place where something is to be done. Livestock (poultry rearing, calf fattening, goat rearing, milking cows, rabbit rearing) and fishery (if possible) are the main farming activities that have traditionally taken place in the homesteads. The current project will address the technical assistance and capital for undertaking those homestead-based activities where all the family members, including women, will participate.
After getting the training and financial assistance each family will initiate as many as possible from the following food security activities:

Food sustainability and micro enterprise project

Partnering with MCC and implemented through the Canadian Food Grains Bank (CFGB) which receives matching funds from the Canadian Government at the rate of $4.00 – $1.00!

  • $1 buys vegetable seeds for 7 families — these vegetables will be ready to eat during Monga season.
  • $10 buys two fruit trees for 10 families — the fruit will ripen and be ready to eat during Monga season.
  • $57 buys a calf with matching money from a family who has sold a goat. — income generation for one family to purchase food during the monga season. The calf will be fattened fro 4 months and sold at a profit fro $43 for the family to use to purchase food during the Monga season