faces of change - climate change in Bangladesh

faces of change - climate change in Bangladesh
(a special issue on climate change - in association with the campaign for sustainable rural livelihoods - a publication of New Age)

BANGLADESH happens to be the largest natural drainage system in the world. Despite having merely seven per cent land mass of South Asia, it drains 90 per cent water of the region into the Bay of Bengal. The country, except for small pockets, also happens to be an active deltaic region literally criss-crossed with rivers and canals which play a significant role in the livelihoods of millions of people. Given its population density, climatic changes will have serious consequences on the people of the country which has about 150 million with some 60 million living below the poverty line.

Over half the population of the country depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and even minor changes in the agricultural calendar are having a devastating domino effect on the rural economy.

The impacts and changes in weather patterns and physical systems have different impacts on each of the 30 agro-ecological zones of Bangladesh. In Faces of Change, New Age profiles 30 individuals, mostly small or marginal farmers, from Bangladesh’s 30 zones letting them speak about whether and how they have seen their environment change in the past decade.

-taken from (-http://www.newagebd.com/2008/may/31/climatechange08/02.html)

=-=-=-=

AGRO-ECOLOGICAL ZONES
Bangladesh is divided into 30 agro-ecological zones on the basis of physiography, soils, land levels in relation to flooding and agro-climatology. An agro-ecological zone indicates an area characterised by homogenous agricultural and ecological characteristics. This map is reprinted courtesy of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council

=-=-=-=
Faizul Khan Tanim visits 5 agro-ecological zones, spoke with 5 farmers. Below is a transcript from their discussion:-

1) Shahida Begum, 45, Farmer, Shakrail, Saturia, Manikganj

ZONE
Young Brahmaputra and Jamuna Floodplain

CHANGES
* Changes in rainfall pattern (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Increased humidity

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Severe flood
* Land erosion
* Drought

'THE most disturbing thing that agonises me is that kal baishakhi storms (Nor’westers) are no longer arriving from the usual ishan kon (northeast) direction for the past five years at least. This is how our ancestors have known it – why is it changing?’ asks Shahida Begum who owns 35 decimals of land at the border between Saturia and Gorpara areas of Manikganj.

‘Nowadays, we cannot cultivate rice like before as there is no water for irrigation. Planting tobacco is fetching more money. The soil here, which undergoes land erosion every now and then, is also less fertile for rice cultivation, due to the usage of excessive fertiliser and tobacco farming. Therefore, we cultivate two crops here – tobacco, followed by corn,’ Shahida says.

Shahida says that the people of her area look at floods as blessings as they bring nutrient rich sediments to topsoil damaged by tobacco crops. ‘Sometimes, we harvest Aman rice crop in the rainwater crammed paddy fields but it never does well.'

She explained that since there is less and less rain over long spells it causes rice paddy diseases so instead of taking the risk, the local people opt for tobacco plantation. She also stated that the irregular rainfall and at times, excessive flood over the past three to five years are making them concerned about what is happening. ‘Even three to four years back, the temperature was much cooler but the heat now is extreme all of a sudden and especially this year,’ she says.

She adds that the rivers are drying up so fast that it is definitely an alarming situation. Many ponds she saw during her childhood are totally dried and fish harvests have dropped.

The groundwater level has greatly decreased in Shahida’s area and now almost seven pipes have to be installed for one tube well which must reach 90 feet to extract the groundwater level. ‘Even then, we are not getting water properly,’ she says.

=-=-=-=

2) Wadul Miah, 45, Farmer, Phulbagan, Trishal, Mymensingh

ZONE
Old Brahmaputra Floodplain

CHANGES
* Rainfall Pattern Change (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Humidity

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Flood
* Drought

'THERE is usually three feet of water in the paddy fields during this time normally in the Bangla Baisakh-Jaishtha months but it rained only once so far,’ says Wadul Miah. ‘The cultivable land is so dry that even the plough breaks at times. In addition, because of a lack of rain, the crop-eating insects and pests have increased drastically, which would have been washed away otherwise. Crop diseases are also spreading,’ says Wadul.

For Wadul, the worst part is that he had to buy an extra 360 kilograms of rice to feed his family last year, and to make matters worse, his Boro crop did not do well due to poor rain.

‘Due to this change of temperature – and frequent dry spell – I cannot sow the seeds of my next crop timely as every crop needs a specific time to grow. The water bodies are so dry that the surface water is decreasing and moreover, the groundwater level has seen a huge decrease’, added Wadul. He says recently they have had to dig down to 50 feet to extract groundwater.

Discussing the effect of storms, Wadul claimed that it really depends on the wind velocity. If it occurs in the crucial time, it brings good luck but often untimely ones have started occurring with hotter winds and greater wind velocity, destroying the crop.

According to preliminary studies, the Old Brahmaputra Floodplains — an agro-ecological zone — to which Wadul’s area belongs is increasingly suffering from erratic rainfall and variations in temperature and humidity causing floods and droughts in the monsoon and a prolonged dry season.

Wadul says that haphazard rain causes the muddy roads to disintegrate and worsening communication systems. ‘The recent dry spell has sucked the water from the soil, hampering grass growth, and therefore the domestic animals cannot find enough food. This dry spell has caused most fruits like mangoes and jackfruits to fall before ripening,’ he says.

=-=-=-=

3) Md Seken Ali, 50, Farmer, Bilpakuria, Pangsha, Rajbari

ZONE
Lower Ganges River Floodplain

CHANGES
* Rainfall pattern change (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Increased humidity

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Flood
* Drought

'THE temperature is changed greatly. Summer times never used to be so hot five years back but this year, we can hardly work on the fields in the morning. It is so hot that we get blisters all over our body,’ say Seken Ali.

Seken and other farmers in his area have talked often about why temperatures could be rising like this and they think it is the population explosion and deforestation that is causing the heat. Most of the farmers in the area are landless and of the 158 acres of khas (government owned) land in their village, almost 114 acres are distributed amongst 500 families.

Seken says that they cultivate one rice crop only – Aman (mainly used to make puffed rice) in a year and cultivate jute and other vegetables and spices like green chili, onion, garlic, turmeric, wheat and more, many of them known as chaitali phashal.

‘The rice that is cultivated in my land fetches one third of the total demand for rice in my family in a year, which means, my harvested crops last only four months per year and then I need to start purchasing again.

‘This is the case since 20 percent of the paddy gets wasted due to diseases and is caused by drought and inappropriate use of fertiliser. Even the jute plants are one to two feet high whereas the standard height of those plants five years back were 3.5 to 4 feet’, he added.

He complains that the embankment built on the Padma river in his village actually stops floodwater coming in, but increasingly rainwater stagnates because of it. Therefore, not only are we missing the nutrients that the floods bring to the soil, but rainwater cannot flow out, and destroy the crop base,’ says Seken.

‘A lot of industrialists have installed mills and are dumping all their wastes in to the nearby rivers or using pipes to send them underground. The groundwater here is contaminated,’ says Ruhul Amin Bulu, a member of the Palli Bandhu Sangstha, Rajbari.

=-=-=-=

4) Muhammad Ranjan, 38, Farmer, Srinagar, Munshiganj

ZONE
Arial Beel

CHANGES
* Rainfall Pattern Change (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Increased humidity

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Flood
* Sedimentation


'THIS is a very low area here which is why we dumped extra soil and raised the height of the cultivation land/beds so that random floods could not harm the crop,’ says Muhammad Ranjan. ‘To no avail. Increasing intensity of rain in short bursts are not only flooding their paddy fields, they are also eroding the top soil and leveling the fields again,’ he says.

‘Floods ten years ago were not like this. Sudden floods and heavy unexpected rains are causing water logging at certain times, and lack of rain is causing extreme heat at other times. These all have become unpredictable events and disrupting the regular cycle of crop production,’ Ranjan says.

‘Decrease in the surface water levels is another alarming thing which is forcing us to channel water for irrigation. Normally, we plant jute crops but for this water crisis in the past few years, planting jute crop almost stopped,’ says Ranjan.

Ranjan says that random floods are also destroying the fisheries as well. ‘We are losing the fishes and the overall communication system is being disrupted – we cannot walk anymore and sometimes need to use boats to visit next door neighbors’.

‘We cultivate mainly two types of crops – potato and rice, but in between, we farm a lot of plants to be used as fuel. Sudden floods totally destroy this cultivation’ Ranjan added.

He said, compared to last year, they had a good potato crop this year – 180 maunds, which they harvested in February but due to the soaring price of commodities, the costs of the family have doubled even as his long term income prospects are declining.

=-=-=-=

5) Afazuddin Akhand, 70, Farmer, Bhoradoba, Bhaluka, Mymensingh


ZONE
Madhupur Tract

CHANGES
* Rainfall Pattern Change (increased in monsoon and decrease in winter seasons)
* Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
* Less moisture and increased evaporation and drought
* Humidity

POTENTIAL IMPACTS
* Flood
* Drought

'DUE to irregular rainfall every year and random flood growing rice has become a big risk, more and more farmers are giving up their lands to industrialists building mostly spinning mills and other industries,’ says Afazuddin.

It is not much of a problem for farmers who own large amounts of land, he says, ‘But small farmers like me have small land holdings and if the crop fails, we are ruined in one harvest’.

Afazuddin cultivates rice on 64 decimals of his land, and vegetables like green chili, potato, eggplant, radish and many types of spinach on the rest of his land. He says that he collects on an average of 70 maunds of rice (Boro and Aman) each year and this crop production has seen a downward trend in the last five years. This production is not sufficient to feed his family and he has to buy an extra 130 kilograms of rice every year.

This is due to dearth of water for irrigation during summer, irregular rainfall in monsoon causing rice diseases, and excessive rainfall in many occasions causing knee-high water stagnation in the paddy field, which destroys the base of the Boro crop during Baisakh-Jaishtha (April-May) months and Amon crop during Ashwin-Kartik (September-October) months of the Bangla calendar according to Afazuddin. Moreover, untimely hailstorms damage the rice completely, which is a big blow for the farmers.

‘The winters have become unpredictable in the last five years as they do not provide the chill and shiver like before which is the main ingredient for winter vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, while at times, unpredictable and excessive fog destroys those crops,’ Afazuddin added.

‘Many of the farmers switched to fish farming (mainly carp) or selling their lands to industrialists, which is more profitable but overall rice production is shrinking, which is our staple food. This is causing the rice shortage’.

*for more climate change profiles as above, see http://www.newagebd.com/2008/may/31/climatechange08/climatechange08.html