Guwahati: Farmers in Majuli have found a way of keeping their crops afloat even during floods.

At least six farmers' groups of the island have adopted a successful climate adaptation farming model from Bangladesh, and are growing vegetables and medicinal plants on floating beds in waterbodies.

The South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE), an NGO, had launched a pilot project in June this year under which farmers were trained to prepare the floating beds and cultivate vegetables.

Three farmers' clubs, each comprising 10 farmers of Bhekulimari, Borkhola and Sonaribari villages, grew ladies finger, coriander, brahmi and other leafy vegetables on 10 floating beds.

"As large areas in Majuli are under water during floods, the floating beds help us grow vegetables. The beds are created on a bamboo structure in which 50 per cent paddy husk, 20 per cent vermi-compost and 30 per cent soil is laid. A polyurethane foam is used to keep the bed afloat," the co-ordinator of the forum's hydroponics project and a farmer in Majuli, Saben Kalita, told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent.

"A greenhouse is created over the floating bed to protect the crops from heavy rain or excessive sunlight," he said.

Farmers in three other villages - Pohardia, Borholagaon and Lahongaon - took up this method to plant medicinal plants.

"Many waterbodies in Majuli are abandoned and these beds can make proper use of them. We also have a hatchery to put up these floating beds," Kalita said.

An agriculture department official said the beds are good to grow leafy vegetables but not for root vegetables such as potato or radish.

Kalita said the project was part of the forum's climate adaptation project, successfully implemented in flood-prone villages in Bangladesh.

The NGO plans to have at least 1,000 floating beds in Majuli and involve more farmers and link them with banks for crop loans.

It has taken up similar projects for farmers near Deepor Beel, a Ramsar site wetland in Guwahati.