Bangladesh Farmers Boost Income $650 With Bamboo Trellises

Milan Tanchangya watched cucumber and bitter gourd vines climb overhead as he harvested from his bamboo trellis farm, earning an extra $650 each year using a method that seemed impossible just five years ago.

The 43-year-old farmer from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts once practiced jhum, the traditional shifting agriculture his Indigenous community relied on for generations. But shrinking land availability and exhausted soil forced him to find a new way to feed his family of seven.

He discovered machan, a vertical farming method using bamboo trellises that lets vegetables grow above ground on steep hillsides. The change brought steady income and multiple harvests per year, something his old jhum plots never provided.

"If I can manage the trellises well, I can harvest several crops a year, and the soil remains intact," Milan said from his green canopy of crops in Bandarban district.

Manue Mro knows the struggle well. For 25 years he practiced jhum cultivation, rotating plots that once lay fallow for nearly a decade between plantings. Now farmers can barely rest the same land for a year due to growing populations and limited space.

The weak soil meant weak yields. Government data shows jhum farming in Bandarban dropped from 22,365 acres in 2014 to 20,439 acres by 2024, even as farmer numbers climbed from 45,642 to 56,524.

Manue gave up jhum eight years ago for fruit orchards and now runs a roadside tea stall. The decision wasn't easy since jhum represents more than farming for Indigenous communities like the Chakma, Marma, and Mro people. It shaped their rituals, seasonal calendars, and cultural identity through ceremonial plantings, harvest festivals, traditional songs, and communal dancing.

But survival required adaptation. Liton Marma, 53, now builds machan structures using bamboo poles, wooden sticks, rope, and plastic nets he sources from nearby forests and markets. He plants vegetables, waits two to three weeks, then stretches netting across the frame for climbers to grow upward.

The method protects crops from ground pests and viral diseases while reducing erosion on steep slopes. Most small farmers can afford the simple materials needed.

The Ripple Effect

Abu Noiem Mohammad Saifuddin, deputy director of Bandarban's Department of Agriculture Extension, confirmed machan vegetable farming expanded to 5,639 acres by the 2022-23 season. The vertical approach works particularly well on the region's challenging hillside terrain where traditional ground farming struggled.

For Milan and hundreds of farmers like him, the bamboo trellises mean reliable food and income without destroying the hillsides their families have called home for generations. The transition preserves both livelihoods and landscape in one simple frame.