Impact of climate change on crop agriculture southern region of Bangladesh: a Case Study of Banaripara Upazila ,Barisal.

Abstract

The study was conducted on disaster prone area of Banaripara upazila Barisal, Bangladesh. The objective of the study was to find out the existing agricultural production system and how climate change is affecting agricultural cropping pattern. Primary data were collected using multiple approaches, e.g. key informant interviews, 40 interviews of each village of two. According to the resource map, there have very small amount of forest cover and forest reserve areas in the study areas. The stratification of the surveyed villages indicated that there were three wealth groups in both villages. On the context of the status of the three wealthy groups, it implies that vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities among groups vary accordingly in the two villages studied. From the field survey, it was clear that that the local responses on climate changes were more significant on their perceptions. It has been reported that the area becomes extremely hot during the day but during the night it remains very cold. This study also showed variation on rainfall patterns in different seasons. The average minimum temperature is decreasing but the average maximum temperature is increasing. The Rabi crops are less vulnerable to change rainfall rate in winter as the production rate of potato, vegetables and banana are increasing trends or constant. In Kharif season, paddy, mustard and wheat production varied with the rise and fall of rainfall intensity. In Kharif-II season, transplanted aman production showed the constant trends of production but the vegetables production fluctuated with the fluctuation of rainfall and temperature.