Story in: December-2022

Story: Harmful effects of climate change on agricultural production in Bangladesh

Harmful effects of climate change on agricultural production in Bangladesh

Climate is the 30-35 year average weather of an area or geographical area. Rapid climate change is a casual phenomenon in today's world. As a result of this climate change, the earth's temperature is gradually increasing, which is better known as global warming. In scientific terms, this is called the Green House effect. Due to the increase in global temperature, various types of disasters are increasing such as heavy rains, non-rainfalls, flash floods, droughts, floods, cyclones, etc. As a result, the loss of life and property is increasing. Due to this every year billions of Taka of wealth are wasted.

Due to this, Bangladesh is one of the countries in the world that will be affected. Bangladesh's geographical location, socio-economic infrastructure and dependence on natural resources are the main reasons for this. As a result of climate change, all sectors of Bangladesh, especially infrastructure, health, housing, agricultural production, natural environment and public welfare services and food security will be severely affected.

Climate change has had the greatest impact on agriculture. Agrarian economies are adversely affected. Over the past century, Carbon dioxide has increased by 23%, Nitrous oxide by 19% and Methane by 100%.

About 4,000 square kilometers in the northeastern region of Bangladesh and 1,400 square kilometers in the southeastern region are suffering from flash floods. Monsoon floods do not cause problems in coastal areas. But its impact is very high in flood-prone areas. In addition to crops, it causes extensive damage to livestock. Tidal flooding causes extensive damage to coastal areas. It causes waterlogging of saline water in the land, which is unsuitable for growing crops.

A drought occurs when evaporation is greater than precipitation in an area. Agricultural drought refers to a disruption of biological activities due to a lack of water in the crop life cycle due to an increase in precipitation, temperature, air humidity, evaporation, etc. Drought is a common natural disaster in agriculture. Every year 30 to 40 million hectares of land are affected by various degrees of drought. Aman paddy is cultivated on 60 percent of the 8.3 million hectares of arable land affected by various degrees of drought in the country. Apart from this, drought affected the cultivation of Aush and Boro paddy, jute, pulses and oil crops, potatoes, winter vegetables and sugarcane. Drought in March-April caused difficulties in land preparation for cultivation, as a result of which sowing of woven Aman, Aush and jute could not be done on time. The drought of May-June affected the cultivation of bona Aman, Aush and boro paddy, jute, pulses and oil crops, potatoes, winter vegetables and sugarcane.

From the weather data of the last 25 years, it can be seen that the average temperature of Bangladesh has not increased much. However, it is feared that the average temperature may increase by 1.0 degrees by 2030, 1.4 degrees by 2050 and 2.4 degrees Celsius by 2100. Although the temperature has not increased recently, the level of warm and cold currents has increased. Both the length of winter and the severity of winter are gradually decreasing in Bangladesh.

Normal growth of most Rabi crops is disrupted and this has an adverse effect on yield. In addition, the occurrence of warm currents in the winter season greatly reduces the yield of more sensitive crops such as wheat and makes wheat production unprofitable. If there is a sudden severe cold, it has an adverse effect on the crops like mustard, lentil, chickpea, etc. and the pollination of these crops is disrupted and the yield is very low.

Saltwater intrusion is a serious problem in Bangladesh. In 1973, 1.5 million hectares of land were affected by mild salinity, which increased to 2.5 million hectares in 1997. Currently, its amount is about 3 million hectares. Due to low rainfall, the amount of saline land is increasing in coastal areas, which will cause more problems in the future due to rising temperatures and lack of moderate rainfall. The total coastal area of ​​Bangladesh is about 2.5 million hectares, of which about 10.5 hectares are currently affected by varying degrees of salinity.

Bangladesh Water Development Board survey so far 1,200 km. The river bank is broken and another 500 km. faced with erosion. It can be seen from the satellite images that only 19,00 hectares of new land have been formed against the erosion of 1,06,300 hectares of river banks from 1982 to 1992. If climate change continues, this imbalance will become more pronounced.

In order to adapt to these adverse climate conditions, especially various adaptation techniques should be implemented so that agriculture can be freed from the harmful effects of climate change or reduce the risk. Besides, during disaster-free times, crop diversification and cropping intensity can compensate for disaster losses. -Editor

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