How prepared is Bangladesh's agriculture sector to face climate change?
Since climate change poses different risks in different regions, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to climate adaptation when it comes to agriculture.
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, ranking seventh in terms of vulnerability according to the Global Climate Risk Index.
The impacts of climate-induced hazards are multifaceted: they shatter lives, wipe out crop fields, and cripple the local economy.
According to Labour Force Survey 2022, 45.33% of the about seven crore people are employed in the agriculture sector, which is the main job generator. In 2022, the share of agriculture in Bangladesh's gross domestic product was 11.22%. Therefore, protecting agriculture from various natural hazards has always been a priority for the country.
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While ordinary people are often seen protecting their produce by employing different methods, the government and NGOs also try to bring innovation to the sector to help it cope with the changing climate.
However, different parts of the country are vulnerable to different hazards. In the Sylhet region, for instance, the intensity of flash floods has increased manifold in recent years. When it hits a little earlier – in April – it damages the boro crop.
In coastal areas, salinity makes it impossible to grow paddy not only in the dry season, but also during monsoon, when salinity is supposed to wash away. And in the north-west, groundwater depletion causes a drought-like situation when irrigation projects struggle to supply water to farmers as necessary.
Since climate change poses different risks in different places, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to climate adaptation when it comes to agriculture.
Flash floods
After 2017, flash floods in north-east Bangladesh destroyed one-fourth of the country's annual boro rice produce, making experts feel the need to promote short duration rice varieties so that they can be harvested before early floods destroy them.
We talked to Md Motiuzzaman, additional director, Agriculture Extension Department in Sylhet about the progress of this plan. He said the department was promoting BRRI dhan 88 and 89 instead of BRRI dhan 28 and 29.
However, farmers in Companiganj, Sylhet said that though BRRI dhan 88 and 89 yield better, they take seven to 10 days longer to ripen. It is rather strange that the department has chosen to promote a longer duration variety when the exact opposite is prescribed.
But other adaptive measures such as encouraging farmers to sow seeds earlier and compensating them in case of crop loss during flash floods seemed to be effective.
"When early warning systems predict floods, agri officials advise the farmers to harvest the crops even if 70% is mature. This way, we can save enough rice," said Abul Bashar, a ward member at Notun Jibonpur union in Companiganj, Sylhet.
Bashar, who is also involved in agriculture, said paddy in the fields consisted of 35% BRRI dhan 28 and 29, and 65% of BRRI 58, 89 and 90.
We saw a combined harvester in front of Bashar's house. Distributing these harvesters at subsidised prices have left a positive impact, as labour shortage and wage hike in peak harvesting period marred harvesting operations in recent years.
However, farmers say the imported machines frequently break, and spare parts are hard to find. Utilising local agri-tech hubs such as Bogura and also enhancing the capacity of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institution (BARI) – which have invented and reverse engineered many agro machineries – could help the situation.
Salinity
For salinity-prone areas, the BRRI developed salinity-resistant rice varieties. Talking to farmers in the coastal areas revealed that such varieties are not popular there.
In many areas, salinity has affected the land so severely that they fail to grow rice at all.
"We tried to cultivate saline-resistant rice here, but they didn't survive due to saline water intrusion," said Shipra Haldar, a union parishad member in Mongla, Bagerhat.
Of course, she made it clear that shrimp farmers letting in saline water into the fields is mainly responsible for the intense salinity.
It is interesting to note that to the south of Mongla-Ghashiakhali Channel, in the places like Mongla municipality and Chandpai, there is rarely any paddy field; however, women there are growing vegetables in their homestead just fine. Since homesteads are raised, saline water does not flood them.
In other coastal districts like Patuakhali and Khulna, farmers are finding hope in sunflower cultivation as an alternative crop. Both the government and NGOs are promoting the crop there.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and NGOs are providing sunflower seeds and necessary fertilisers to the farmers to encourage them to cultivate the edible oil crop. The harvest has been good so far. Sunflower oil is considered more healthy than soybean oil, and the production of it is expected to have a positive impact on the market as cooking oil prices have been on the rise for the last couple of years.
However, oil extraction is marred by the shortage of machines, according to reports. In many cases, farmers have to travel too far to have their seeds crushed for oil. Meanwhile, the Farm Machinery and Postharvest Process Engineering Division of BARI has manufactured a diesel-run sunflower threshing machine, promotion of which will expedite sunflower oil production.
Water scarcity
Exactly when farmers in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh worry about flash floods, farmers in Barind Tract in the north-west start to suffer from an acute shortage of water.
The Barind Tract has always been drought-prone. To evade drought in the region, in the past decades, 15,000 deep tube-wells have been installed. Also, underground drainage pipes were installed so the irrigation water supplied through open canals was not wasted in the scorching sun. All the efforts and investments paid off when the region started getting good harvests.
However, as groundwater depleted with excessive extraction, farmers in the area are now heading back to square one. For the past several years, the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) has been struggling to supply water to farmers as needed.
The tragic case of a Santal farmer and his cousin in Rajshahi's Godagari upazila drinking pesticide after failing to secure irrigation water made headlines two years back. One farmer died in the hospital.
In a roundtable organised in the capital in March, Director of the Ground Water Hydrology Directorate under Bangladesh Water Development Board, Anwar Zahid, said that surface water should be used more in the Barind region. "In addition to that, we have to also opt for crops that can be grown with less water," he added.
Agriculturists also prescribe to cultivate potato, mustard, legumes etc in the Rabi season (the winter crops) as they need less water.
Md Rezaul Maksud Zahedi, director general of the Water Resources Planning Organisation (Warpo), prescribed in the round table that one canal should be conserved in each upazila, which can be used for domestic purposes.
In the coming days, erratic rainfall and increased salinity are feared to have a profound impact on the country's agriculture and food security. In the face of this challenge, we have to expedite climate adaptation of agriculture, experts highlighted.
Dr Asif Ishtiaque, assistant professor in the Department of Geography, Geology and Planning at Missouri State University, USA, said Bangladesh's achievement in agriculture is laudable as the country has been able to grow enough food for 18 crore people.
But Bangladesh's agriculture will face more challenges in future due to climate change, and in terms of climate adaptation of agriculture, the country has to work more, the academic said.
"If I am to rate Bangladesh's performance on a scale of 1 to 100, Bangladesh's score is 75, and it needs to be 90-95," he said.
"One of the challenges in relation to promoting climate-resilient crop varieties is that they are not as high-yielding as the current hybrid varieties cultivated by the farmers. Also, whenever a new variety is introduced, farmers are often afraid to grow it," Dr Ishtiaque added.
The DAE lacks funds and manpower to effectively promote these climate-appropriate varieties such as heat-tolerant and salt-tolerant rice through demonstration plots and training and motivating farmers, he said, suggesting that the organisational capacity must be enhanced.
The expert said the number of women farmers has increased in many areas, especially climate-vulnerable ones, as the male members of the family move to urban centres to find work. Therefore, the DAE needs to train and employ more female officials so they can communicate the new knowledge and information to the female farmers.
When it comes to drought-prone areas, the professor stressed the need to promote methods like direct seeding and drip irrigation instead of traditional wet-rice agriculture, i.e., growing rice in flooded paddy fields.
He also suggested introduction of low-premium crop insurance and widening of food crop storage arrangements so grassroot farmers can take advantage of them instead of middlemen making all the profits.
