Floating bed vegetable and seedling farming
Building beds of water hyacinth and algae on open water to raise vegetable seedlings. No land and no irrigation needed. In Nazirpur a bed costs Tk 11,000 to build against an expected Tk 20,000 of seedling sales.
- Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
- Version 1
Floating bed vegetable and seedling farming
- Starting capital
- ৳22,000 – ৳2,20,000 Editorial estimate
- Manpower
- 2 – 6 people
- First sale
- 35 – 60 days Editorial estimate
- Break-even
- 5 – 15 months Editorial estimate
- Kind of work
- Farm · Medium difficulty
About the business
No land, and still a crop - grown on the water itself. Water hyacinth, dulalilata, algae, topapana and guripana are layered with straw and coconut coir dust to build a floating bed, or 'dhap'. Between 100 and 180 feet long, five to six feet wide and about a foot and a half thick, it floats on eight to ten feet of water and carries seedlings of cucumber, kakrol, pumpkin, bottle gourd, brinjal, tomato, papaya and chilli. In 2025 Nazirpur in Pirojpur had 2,175 floating beds over 180 hectares of waterbody. The practice is more than two hundred years old and the FAO has formally handed its recognition letter to the Ministry of Agriculture. The work divides: men build the beds, set the seedlings, tend and sell them, while women and children at home roll balls of algae, coconut coir and vermicompost - called 'tema' or 'doulla' locally - put seed inside and germinate them. The money is simple. A farmer in Mugarjhor village, Nazirpur, ran twenty beds in 2025; each bed cost Tk 11,000 to build and he expected to sell Tk 20,000 of seedlings off each one. No irrigation is needed, chemical fertiliser is barely used, and the bed rots down into its own compost. The season runs the five months from Ashar to Kartik; when the water falls, boro paddy goes into the same land.
Unit economics
| Item | Range | Evidence | Suggest a correction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly working capital | ৳44,000 – ৳2,20,000 | Editorial estimate | |
| Selling price | ৳20,000 / unit | Market quote | |
| Variable cost | ৳11,000 / unit | Market quote | |
| Gross margin | 45% | Editorial estimate | |
| Time to first revenue | 35 – 60 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Break-even time | 5 – 15 months | Editorial estimate | |
| Cash cycle | 0 – 7 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Waste / loss | 10% – 20% | Editorial estimate | |
| Daily capacity | 0 – 0.1 | Editorial estimate |
What you need to start
- A boat, used for building the bed, lifting seedlings and getting to market, plus trays, netting, bamboo and seed containers.Equipment
- Water hyacinth, algae, topapana, guripana and dulalilata, plus straw and coconut coir dust. At the Baithakata floating hat a boatload of topapana sells for Tk 1,800-2,500 and a bundle of algae for Tk 200 (October 2025).Starting stock
- Trade licence from the union parishad or municipality. Not needed to sell your own crop, but needed to trade seedlings or run a stall at the hat. Form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type.Licence
- The hand for building a bed: which plant in which layer and how thick it must be to float without breaking up, plus the knack of germinating seed in a tema. Both have passed down through families here for generations.Skill
- The seedling markets at Baithakata, Bisharkandi and Gaokhali, where the raw material is bought and the finished seedlings sold, on Saturdays and Tuesdays.Supplier
- Eight to ten feet of still water - a bil, ditch, canal or pond beside the house. No land deed is needed, but if the water belongs to someone else the owner's permission or lease terms must be settled first. Lease rates could not be verified.Workspace
How the work is done
- 1Pick your waterbody at the start of Joishtho, as soon as the water starts rising - a bil, a ditch beside the house, a canal. No land has to be bought or mortgaged, and that is the whole point of this method.
- 2Collect water hyacinth, algae, topapana, guripana and dulalilata. If your own area does not have them, buy at the Baithakata floating hat, where at dawn on Saturdays and Tuesdays a boatload of topapana goes for Tk 1,800-2,500 and a bundle of algae for Tk 200.
- 3Layer those aquatic plants with straw and coconut coir dust to build the bed: 100-180 feet long, five to six feet wide, one to one and a half feet thick. The bed rots down into its own organic manure.
- 4At home, roll small balls of algae, coconut coir and vermicompost - 'tema' or 'doulla' locally - put the seed inside and germinate it. Women and children do this work at home.
- 5Within a week of the seed sprouting, set the temas onto the floating bed.
- 6Alongside seedlings, plant vegetables directly - barbati, chilli, pumpkin, sheem, papaya, korola, carrot, tomato, bottle gourd, cauliflower, turnip. As many as 41 species are grown on these beds.
- 7You will need no irrigation and very little chemical fertiliser or pesticide. That is why these vegetables sell at a premium as chemical-free.
- 8Keep a boat ready. Lifting seedlings, setting seed and going to market are all done by boat; without one this farming does not work.
- 9Sell twice a week at the seedling markets of Baithakata, Bisharkandi or Gaokhali. Wholesalers come here from Khulna and elsewhere to buy seedlings, waiting with engine boats on the Beluya river.
- 10After Kartik, when the water falls, plant boro paddy in the same land. The rotted bed material mixes into the soil as manure, giving two kinds of income from one plot in a year.
Seasons
- JanLow
- FebLow
- MarLow
- AprLow
- MayNormal
- JunHigh
- JulHigh
- AugHigh
- SepHigh
- OctHigh
- NovNormal
- DecLow
Where it works well
- Strong fitBarishal · Seedlings are raised the same way in Bisharkandi union of Banaripara upazila, and Bisharkandi itself hosts a seedling market.
- Strong fitGopalganj · The Department of Agricultural Extension's project to spread and popularise floating bed vegetable and spice farming works here; one farmer in Raghunathpur union of Sadar upazila ran 90 beds. With the land under water seven months a year, the method fits.
- Strong fitPirojpur · The national centre. Nazirpur upazila had 2,175 floating beds over 180 hectares of water in 2025, with heavy cultivation in Deulbari Dobra and Kolardoania unions and in Swarupkathi. The country's largest floating market, two hundred years old, sits at Baithakata at the mouth of the Beluya river, on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
- PossibleBagerhat · It sits in the southern wetland belt and Khulna's wholesalers take seedlings along this route, but no separate floating bed figures were found.
- PossibleJhalokathi · It lies inside the same bil country as Pirojpur and Barishal with land under water most of the year, so the method applies. No separate figures for bed numbers or markets were found here.
- PossibleKhulna · Not the growing end but the buying end: wholesalers come from Khulna and elsewhere to buy seedlings at Baithakata and Gaokhali.
Risks and cautions
- HighWorking capital: The whole cost lands at the start of the season. Twenty beds means putting Tk 220,000 in before Ashar, while the seedling money only starts coming afterwards. That gap is what pushes Pirojpur's floating farmers towards high-interest informal credit: they have no land deed to offer a bank as security.
- HighSpoilage: Both seedlings and vegetables perish fast. They have to be lifted, boated to the hat, and the hat sits only twice a week. Whatever does not sell on those two days grows past its size and the price falls.
- HighOther: The weather decides everything. The bed floats in open water, so a storm, waves or a sudden rise can break it up or carry it off. The farmers themselves say profit or loss depends entirely on the weather. There is no insurance, and a broken bed means the whole Tk 11,000 is gone.
- MediumDemand: The season is only five months, Ashar to Kartik. There is no income from the bed outside it, so once the water falls you move to boro paddy or other work. A household living only off the beds has to find seven months of income elsewhere.
- MediumDependency: The raw material has itself become a traded commodity. No bed can be built without algae, water hyacinth root, topapana and dulalilata, and these now have to be bought at the hat; the Nazirpur agriculture officer says farmers earn crores a year just selling them. Anyone whose own water does not grow them pays more.
Sources
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Stories about this business
7,000-10,000 taka to build one floating bed, and seedlings down from 8-9 taka to 2
This farmer works 15-16 floating beds, each 60-foot bed costing 7,000-10,000 taka to build. During the COVID period seedling prices fell from 8-9 taka the year before to as little as 2.
- Reasons
- Price drop, Working capital
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