Nurul Haq vividly remembers the day Sidr, one of the strongest cyclones to hit Bangladesh’s coastal region 17 years ago, devastated him and his family.
The winds blew away his tin house and destroyed vast parts of the Sundarbans mangrove forest, which he relied on for his livelihood and to support his five-member family.
“I had nothing to survive on besides relying on government and NGO relief materials. That was not how I wanted to live,” the 45-year-old father of a son and two daughters told UCA News.
The cyclone killed more than 4,000 people, injured thousands more, and damaged a quarter of the Sundarbans (meaning ‘beautiful forest’ in Bengali), the world’s largest mangrove forest straddling Bangladesh and India.
The disaster crippled the lives of Haq and others in the village of Bakultala, in Shoronkhola sub-district of Bagerhat, one of the worst-hit districts.
“We used to fish in the rivers and collect leaves and wood from the Sundarbans and sell them for our livelihood,” Haq said.
As part of the Sundarbans’ natural recovery and restoration, the government imposed an indefinite, blanket ban on activities in the forest, including the collection of timber, firewood, thatching materials, honey, beeswax, shells, and fishing.
In addition to the Bakultala villagers, an estimated 300,000 people, largely impoverished villagers, depended entirely on the forest for their survival.
Many were forced to migrate elsewhere to make a living, Haq said. But many like him had a second thought — changing their way of life for survival.
“I had some two acres [0.8 hectares] of land and decided to grow crops on it,” he said.
Aid agencies came forward to assist farmers like Haq.
A farmer stands in front of his rice field planted with flood- and salt-tolerant seeds that can survive up to 14 days when completely submerged in water. (Photo: Mahin Rashid/ USAID)
Changed methods
He received special training on cultivating paddy, vegetables, and fruit in fields intruded by high saline water levels from the Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
“I dug a pond within my crop field and have a good drainage system for all plots. The pond was necessary for harvesting rainwater, and the drainage system was used to drain water that inundates the land during tidal surges,” he told UCA News.
Later, he received additional training on making natural fertilizers and saline-tolerant crop varieties offered by the state-run Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) and a local NGO, Rupantor (Transformation).
Now, Haq produces paddy on 66 decimals (0.66 acres) of land and vegetables on 144 decimals.
“Now there are tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, bottle gourd, red amaranth, and so on in my garden. I can eat as well by selling the vegetables,” he said.
In the past, farmers like Haq had to spend money to hire trucks to send their produce to the capital, Dhaka, for better profits. That has also changed now.
“Now, we can sell it in our local market as wholesale buyers come here,” he adds.
Haq’s story represents the struggle and resilience of thousands of people in Bangladesh’s southern coastal region, which covers an estimated 47,201 square kilometers. The region is home to about 35 million people or 29 percent of the nation’s more than 170 million population.
The low-lying river delta nation’s coastline is about 710 kilometers long. It covers mangrove forests, tidal flats, estuaries, seagrass, about 70 islands, beaches, a peninsula, rural settlements, urban and industrial areas, and ports.
Many of the coastal communities are among the poorest and most marginalized people like Haq. They are most vulnerable to climate change-induced and man-made disasters such as pollution, deforestation, rapid industrialization and urbanization.
Dubbed one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations by global climate risk groups, Bangladesh faces natural calamities like flooding, cyclones, tidal surges, sea-level rise, salinity intrusion and land erosion every year.
The state-run Department of Environment warned in a study that, with the current pace of global warming, about 18 percent of Bangladesh’s coastal area could vanish in the sea by the end of this century.
It would mean a 5.8 to 9.1 percent drop in rice production, the staple food in Bangladesh.
A villager pushes a boat loaded with paddy in the Sunderbans, the world’s biggest mangrove reserve. As the Bangladesh government introduces new technologies to farmers, they are also becoming interested in them, and many shrimp farmers are shifting to paddy and vegetable farming. (Photo: AFP)
Shifting from shrimp to crops
While such projections are frightening, farmers’ resilience and scientific innovations are helping thousands of farmers like Haq adapt to the new realities.
Agriculture scientists in Bangladesh have developed crop varieties BINA 7, BRRI 71, and BRRI 56 paddy, maize, sunflower, and soybean, which can withstand the challenges posed by climate change, including extreme temperatures, saline intrusion, and pest outbreaks.
As the government introduces new technologies to farmers, they are also becoming interested in them, and many shrimp farmers are shifting to paddy and vegetable farming.
Rafiqul Islam, additional director at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Khulna, a southwestern coastal district, said farmers in the coastal region traditionally produced paddy and other crops. In the early 1980s, shrimp cultivation in brackish water became a new trend.
“Shrimp cultivation in enclosures was seen as more profitable. But that required salty water. There were many cases when shrimp farmers cut the embankments to bring in salt water for their enclosures,” he told UCA News.
However, recent virus outbreaks and a lack of suitable shrimp varieties have become significant challenges for shrimp farmers, causing them losses. Also, many farmers have realized that bringing in saline water damages the ecology. Thus, they started shifting from shrimp to crop production.
Professor Abdullah Harun Chowdhury at the Department of Environmental Science at Khulna University, who has extensively researched agriculture and climate change, said farmers realized that they did not have enough paddy, vegetables, milk, fruit, and even meat as they were too engaged in shrimp farming.
“I would say that some sixty to seventy percent of the shrimp farmers have now moved to crop production,” he said about significant parts of Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira, three coastal districts where shrimp farming was thriving just a few years back.
According to the DAE, rice production has increased by about 15 percent in these three districts in the last five years, while vegetable production has increased by around 50 percent. Farmers in these districts are now producing more sunflower seeds, mustard, and maize, as well as watermelon, mango, coconut, guava, and banana.
Chowdhury said the ponds dug between crop plots are used for irrigation during the dry season and for farming freshwater fish. Farmers also grow various vegetables and fruit, around the ponds making the best use of the land.
A farming couple with Indian spinach produced through integrated farming in the Khulna area of Bangladesh. (Photo: Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods (CREL) project)
New challenges
Chowdhury said there are some areas in Khulna where farmers go for monocrops.
“For example, some farmers plant watermelon, and others do the same. Howerber, it is always good for the farmers to do multi-cropping, which is good for soil fertility,” he said.
As farmers grow crops, one reality is emerging: “They don’t have the right to seed. They entirely depend on seeds from companies,” he added.
Chowdhury said the government needs to promote indigenous crops through which farmers themselves produce seeds instead of fully relying on the seed companies.
Islam from the DAE said some low-lying coastal areas remain waterlogged even during the dry season.
“If water is drained out of that land, we can significantly increase our crop production,” he explained.
The agriculturist said a balance in ecology and development is very important.
“We need to protect our forests, our water resources and soil. At the same time, we need to grow food for our survival. We should strike a balance between all these,” he said.
Farmers like Haq continue to demonstrate their resilience.
His house and trees were again damaged during recent cyclones — Remal (May 26) and Dana (Oct. 22), but he has not lost hope.
“We cannot prevent cyclones. What we can do is to make ourselves resilient,” he said.
Haq encourages people in his locality to take up crop farming and offers guidance with his skills and experience.
He said that about 300 people in the Shoronkhola area have shifted to farming in past years, and they produce paddy, vegetables, and other crops.
“I tell people that we need all — fish, rice, vegetables, milk and meat. Where shall we get them if we don’t produce them?” he said.
source : uca news