The impacts of tobacco cultivation on traditional agro-practices and knowledge, food security, agro-biodiversity and socio-economic conditions of a remote hilly tribal community of Bangladesh were investigated. Sixty per cent households were found practicing shifting cultivation compared with 10 yrs back changing local food availability. Local crop varieties were being lost due to low cultivation and weak seed preservation system. Despite better benefits from traditional cultivation, 90% people now fully depended upon tobacco cultivation for significant cash flow at a time.

Floating gardening, a form of hydroponics using aquatic plants as the medium, is a traditional cultivation system in southern Bangladesh practiced for year-rouund seedling and vegetable production. The livelihoods of marginalized people of the wetlands in North-eastern Bangladesh are often constrained by 7-8 months water stagnation due to floods. A pioneering attempt at scaling up floating gardening in this haor region coincided with repeated, devastated floods in 2007.