By Biswajit Mondal from Shyamnagar, Satkhira

In the disaster-prone coastal belt of Shyamnagar often battered by storms, salinity, and unplanned shrimp farming makes crop and rice farming difficult. Yet in this harsh landscape, Purnima Rani (44) of Jelekhali village has built what she proudly calls a “Nutrition Home,” showing that agroecology and local wisdom can sustain life, livelihoods, and biodiversity.

She owns about 99 decimals of land of which she farms rice on 49 decimals and the rest her homestead garden bursting with year-round vegetables, spices, and fruits. She also sharecrops 5–6 bighas of other people’s land for rice cultivation. Her home garden grows gourds, pumpkins, eggplants, okra, beans, leafy greens, ginger, turmeric, chilies, along with mango, jackfruit, coconut, banana, pineapple, papaya, and more.

She has two ponds which supply her native fishes. She also rears 11 cows, 8 goats, and over 30 ducks and chickens. These livestock do not only meet her family’s nutritional needs but also provide her cash per month from selling eggs and poultry,

When asking about her initiative, Purnima Rani said, “My house has no wasted space. We’re nine people, and apart from oil, we hardly need to buy anything from the market. We have vegetables, fruits, uncultivated edible plants, milk, poultry and fish making our house truly a nutrition home.”

But Purnima does not stop there. She conserves seeds from her harvests and shares them with 25–30 neighbors each year. She makes and uses vermicompost, pit compost, herbal pesticides, and sex pheromone traps. For hatching chicks and ducklings, she relies on traditional methods using baskets and clay pots.

With support from BARCIK, her home is evolving into an “Agroecology Learning Center.” She has formed a local group with 27 members, offers training and advice, and welcomes visitors eager to learn. “BARCIK has given me training and exchange visits,” she says. “Seeing other learning centers in Mathurapur and Sripholkathi inspired me to shape mine the same way.”

Through her dedication and knowledge-sharing, Purnima Rani is not just growing food but also she is promoting agroecology to explore resilience and offer a shining model of sustainable food producing without harming the nature.