Impacts of climate change on cropping pattern in coastal region of Bangladesh : a case study of Sharankhola Upazila , Bagerhat

Abstract

Natural disaster occurs almost every year in Bangladesh due to climate change. Crop agriculture is often constrained by different hazards and disasters such as floods, droughts, soil and water salinity, cyclones and storm surges (MoEF 2009b). It is very common phenomenon in coastal regions of this country. Southwestern part (Khulna region) of Bangladesh is one of the worst affected regions facing the early impacts of climate change particularly in agricultural and socio-economic sector. Every year it causes extensive damages to the agriculture sector in Sharankhola Upazila and change cropping pattern day by day. The Farmers of Sharankhola face a lot of problems to bring all of their arable land under crops cultivation, especially, during winter Boro crops season a lion portion of their land remain untilled only due to salinity problem, and unavailability of quality seeds and agricultural equipments. The dominant crop grown in the saline areas is local transplanted Aman rice crop with low yields. The cropping patterns followed in the coastal areas are mainly Fallow-Fallow-Transplanted Aman rice. The crop yield is negatively impacted by rise in temperature, erratic rainfall, flooding, salinity, etc. and among which water logging and drainage congestion are the major problems. The ecological conditions are more vulnerable which is very likely to be alerted though slowly but surely due to climate change and sea level rise. Salinity causes unfavorable environment and hydrological situation that restrict the normal crop production throughout the year. The factors which contribute significantly to the development of saline soil are, tidal flooding during wet season (June-October), direct inundation by saline water, and upward or lateral movement of saline ground water during dry season (November-May). Dependency on fertilizer and irrigation is increasing which leads to permanent fertility loss of the land, loss of biodiversity, extinction of local verities, ground water scarcity, loss the sustainability of production. However, adaptations to climate change like agronomic manipulations, sustainable climate-resilient agriculture, shifting the planting dates, using short duration crop cultivars can reduce vulnerabilities, delay the process and increase food security.