Food impact report - Summer 2024

An update on MCC food projects

Zahidul Islam works on his floating vegetable garden, he can harvest vegetables all year round, and flooding cannot destroy his gardens anymore. Project implemented by MPUS and funded by MCC. Bogura, Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Colombia — Jul 2024

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Food
July 17, 2024

Rising above the flood with innovation

How your support is boosting crops for resilient families in Bangladesh

Taslima Khatun at her floating garden with plants growing in a hanging garden along the shore. She can harvest all year round and her garden is safe from floods. Project implemented by MPUS and funded by MCC. Bogura, Bangladesh.
Taslima Khatun at her floating garden in Bogura, Bangladesh. With the support of generous donors like you, Taslima has learned to keep her garden safe from floods by growing vertically, ensuring a year-round harvest for her family. (MCC/Fairpicture photo/Fabeha Monir)

Bangladesh is a land of rivers. Heavy monsoon rainfalls give way to rivers overflowing their banks. With climate change, the frequency of floods has increased over the past decade and is wreaking havoc on local farming. Now, 60% of cultivated land is flooded every year and communities along the rivers are forced to suddenly take refuge four or more times a year. 

“Now they know about floating garden technology. It is a chance for them to prepare some beds and grow some crops... Climate changes and [those changes are] getting more and more day by day... So community people should know something and they should be preparing in such a way that they can survive.”

Arefur Rahaman

MCC Food Security and Livelihoods Coordinator

MCC partner, Maitree Palli Unnayan Sangathon (MPUS), is on a mission to improve food security and nutrition for 1,440 families who live along the banks of the Jamuna River in northwestern Bangladesh. Because of your compassionate support, farmers like Taslima are learning to adapt their agricultural practices to become resilient to floods with innovations like floating gardens, vegetable beds and duck rearing, providing safe and healthy food for their families.

Learn more

In this short video, you’ll get an up-close look at how you’re supporting new innovations helping farmers adapt to climate change in Bangladesh.

Sowing seeds of peace in Colombia

How your gifts empowered farmers after a devastating crop failure

Eduardo Rodríguez poses for a portrait in a lush, shady spot next to a clear stream with a small waterfall that the community refers to as “Eden” for its paradisiacal qualities.
With your seeds of generosity, farmers like Eduardo Rodríguez are harvesting new crops of spinach and passion fruit in Vereda Brasilar, Colombia. (MCC photo/Annalee Giesbrecht)

In 2008, a plague wiped out large swaths of profit-rich avocado trees. Farmers had cleared entire forests away to plant these trees in Montes de María, Colombia, and when they died it fractured the community. With their crops destroyed and temperatures rising, some farmers turned to activities, like illegal mining, associated with armed groups that fueled decades of conflict in the region.

Something had to change.

Local farmers like Eduardo Rodríguez teamed up with MCC partner, Sembrando Semillas de Paz (Sowing Seeds of Peace), and learned new reforestation and sustainable agriculture practices that are building climate resilience and improving food security.

Eduardo Rodríguez at his home in San Jacinto, Vereda Brasilar, Colombia. Rodríguez has learned agroforestry techniques from Sembrandopaz that have helped him establish a thriving farm after being displaced as a result of the armed conflict in this region of Colombia. Eduardo Rodríguez at his home in San Jacinto, Vereda Brasilar, Colombia. Rodríguez has learned agroforestry techniques from Sembrandopaz that have helped him establish a thriving farm after being displaced as a result of the armed conflict in this region of Colombia.
“We’re trying to do good through conservation of the environment. Everything we can to create peace.”

Eduardo Rodríguez

Farmer

The kindness of MCC donors like you has fueled this learning for over 260 farmers, giving them an alternative to illegal mining. In this way, you are building peace, because in this region, agricultural climate resilience and peace are closely intertwined.


Click here to learn more about MCC food initiatives. 

Give a gift of food

Stories about food

From partners around the world, we hear similar stories from partners around the world: As economies and weather patterns change, so does their ability to feed and provide for their families.

Learn from people who are innovating and adapting to profound shifts in their lands and livelihoods.

Additional reports

Learn more about how you are making an impact through MCC.

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