Agricultural adaptation actions to address climate change in the coastal region of Bangladesh: A systematic review

Despite the importance of mud crab species (genus Scylla) in both coastal aquaculture and artisanal fisheries, knowledge of the species diversity and stock structure of mud crab population for their sustainable management across the coastal region of Bangladesh remains obscure. Therefore, the present study was conducted to delineate the diversity and stock structure of mud crab species based on the 24 morphometric length measurements and 27 morphometric ratios data collected from the three coastal regions (Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Bagerhat) of Bangladesh. Based on the taxonomic keys, majority of the species (about 82.4%) were identified as S. olivacea, while the remaining (about 17.6%) was S. serrata. In consistent to our preliminary analysis, both the univariate proportion and multivariate analysis of the collected morphometric lengths and ratios data also distinctly divided the mud crabs population into two multivariate spaces as S. serrata and S. olivacea. For the further analysis of the stock structure of these two species, data were subjected to the univariate ANOVA, multivariate ANOVA, Canonical Variate Analysis (CVA), and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) according to their collection sites. Scatter plots of CVA scores between CV1 and CV2 and PCA scores between PC1 and PC2 showed that the individuals of both species clearly made clusters into three multivariate spaces with minimum overlaps according to their collection sites. In morphometric traits Linear Discriminant Function Analysis (LDFA), the average percentage of correctly classified (PCC) into the original groups of the S. olivacea and S. serrata was 100%. For stock discrimination, the average PCC into their original groups of collection sites were 100% and 99% for the S. olivacea and S. serrata, respectively. Finally, dendrogram based on the Euclidean distances consistently separated S. olivacea and S. serrata and stock structures similar to other multivariate analyses. In conclusion, our study shows that S. olivacea is the dominant mud crab species and S. serrata is the minor one, and the stock discrimination of each species should be considered in the management and conservation policy of these species along the coastal region of Bangladesh.

Duck farming has become a profitable venture in Bangladesh due to its economic potential and adaptability. This study aimed to assess the current state of native duck health, disease prevalence, and biosecurity management in selected regions of Bangladesh. Data were collected from 180 duck-rearing farmers from six upazilas of the Coastal and Haor regions using a standard questionnaire. The study investigated vaccination practices, disease prevalence, biosecurity management, and available treatment facilities. Approximately 60% of farmers in the Haor regions and 40 % in the Coastal regions reported vaccinating their ducks, while 56.67% in Haor and 34.44% in Coastal regions practiced deworming. Duck plague was the most prevalent disease in duck farms, with 83.33% and 90.00% prevalence rates in the Haor and Coastal areas, respectively. In the Haor region, 81.11% of farms reported disease incidence among growing ducks. Disease outbreaks (Duck plague and Cholera) were highest during the monsoon season at 77.78% of farms in Haor areas. In the Coastal region, 63.33% of farmers reported a higher duckling mortality rate. The frequent contact between ducks and wild birds was more common in Haor areas, as indicated by 32.22% of farmers. Disease outbreaks were identified as the major constraint to duck farming, and affordable feed price was the most pressing concern in both study areas. Despite these challenges, improvements in disease management, vaccination coverage, and biosecurity measures, alongside efforts to reduce feed costs, could significantly enhance the sector’s growth. It can be concluded that duck farming holds considerable potential and promising opportunities in the Haor and Coastal regions of Bangladesh.

Socio-economic conditions of farmers, especially in the coastal region in Bangladesh, have been severely affected because of climate change. This study was focused on analyzing the farmers’ perception of climate change by examining three vital issues: (1) description of the socioeconomic characteristics of farmers; (2) reporting on the perception of farmers experiences with climatic change; and (3) identification of the socio-economic factors associated with farmers’ perception of climate change. The study area encompasses three villages within the coastal region (Sathkhira district) of Bangladesh, a geographic region where climate change literature has highlighted as prone to accelerated degradation. A logit model, along with weighted indexes for ranking and descriptive statistics, was used to analyze the result of 100 farmers surveyed by questionnaire. We found that the majority of the farmers (88%) perceived changes in climatic conditions. Almost all farmers indicated increases in temperature, droughts, floods, cyclones, salinity level and decreasing rainfall over the last 20 years. The logit model explained that out of the nine factors surveyed; education, family size, farm size, family income, farming experiences and training received were significantly related and influential factors to perception of climate change. Therefore, government and non-governmental organizations are recommended to push forward with interventions, especially focusing on identified factors, in order to strengthen the farmers’ capacity to battle against climate change effects.

The Sundarbans Natural World Heritage Site is lying within the Bangladesh coastal region, which is gifted with vast natural resources, a delta, tidal flat, mangrove forests, marches, lagoons, bars, spilt, estuaries and coastal ecological environment. These habitats, biotopes and ecosystems also serve as potential resources for anthropogenic communities: 36.8 million people are living within the coastal region of Bangladesh and being dependent on coastal water resources, for which the Sundarbans Natural World Heritage Site is giving some protective management support. Nevertheless the natural coastal resources are drastically reducing due to unplanned use by the community and the stakeholders, although the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Rivers are carrying 6 million m3/s water. As a result, the Sundarbans mangrove forests and wetlands are vastly affected through these developments. The present situation demands that an integrated natural resource management plan is necessary for the protection of the mangrove coastal ecosystem. This chapter was prepared based on primary and secondary data sources, as the objectives were to analyze the present coastal mangrove natural resources management status. The study investigates the deltaic Sundarbans natural world heritage site with its mangrove forests and wetlands ecosystem development and management strategies to ensure less vulnerability and a sustainable development of coastal mangrove resources in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Rivers deltaic coastal floodplain region of Bangladesh.

This book has drawn a nexus between climate change and disaster risk reduction (DRR) issues in coastal region of Bangladesh from risk management perspectives. Different chapters of this book have discussed about most common disasters including floods and cyclone that affect the country and increase vulnerability of the people living in different hazardous locations. Major focus of the book is the nature of vulnerability and risk in coastal region of Bangladesh with particular focus on factors shaping vulnerability, and experiences of different kinds of disasters that community people confront in their everyday life. This book also explores some crucial indicators of empowerment, agency of the community and local people in disaster management in the coastal Bangladesh, where vulnerable communities, that is, women, poor, marginal and intersect members of society lack access to resources, income and employment opportunities and others. It has further addressed the nature of sustainable capacity and agency building for adaptation along with investigating the dynamics of resilience, challenges and opportunities among the coastal people of Bangladesh.

The coastal regions of Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to climate change. Crop intensification and diversification in these areas are lower than in other parts of the country due to climate change and multiple stress environments. With other factors, high rainfall variability is one of the regions that impact agricultural production and productivity. The current study investigates the impact of rainfall variability on crop intensification and diversification in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Based on the historical climate data (1980-2020) of six weather stations, this study examines the onset (ON) and withdrawal (WD) of monsoon precipitation by forward and backward accumulation technique and the probability of dry and wet spells utilizing the Markov Chain (MC) probability model. The average ON and WD of monsoon precipitation were found at the 21st‒22nd and 43rd‒44th standard meteorological weeks (SMWs), respectively for all the stations. Extreme rainfall events have increased in recent periods (2001–2020) compared to earlier periods (1981–2000) in the rainfall months (Jun-Oct), potentially contributing to the recurrent flash floods and waterlogging in coastal Bangladesh in that time. The probabilities of dry spells are elevated in the early (1st‒17th SMWs) and late (43rd‒52nd SMWs) of the year. The region's higher likelihood of wet weeks (18th–42nd SMWs) experiencing precipitation ranges from 40‒100%. We also analyzed the effect of rainfall variability on aus (pre-monsoon rice) production, which has great potential in this area. Additionally, the frequency and return periods of extreme rainfall events of different thresholds during the dry months (Nov-Apr) were analyzed to assess the risks of cultivating rabi/non-rice crops due to increased precipitation and waterlogging and to evaluate the potentiality of rabi crops. We found that higher return periods of extreme events might delay the sowing of rabi crops and have adverse effects, particularly during their maturity phases. This study emphasizes the optimizing sowing windows of rice and non-rice crops, and cropping systems innovations based on variable rainfall patterns that will foster sustainable agricultural intensification and diversification in the coastal regions of Bangladesh.

This paper examines the current problematic situation and existing management system for safe water supply in the low lying coastal region of Bangladesh. Based on field survey and community consultations through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), this study identifies a range of factors that influence the shortage of safe water supply in the coastal region in Bangladesh. These include: salinity intrusion (from both human and natural causes), the local hydro-geological condition, poor implementation of water supply management, reduction of upstream sourced flow of water, and lack of adequate policy and research initiatives for technological innovation and implementation. This study suggests possible adaptation strategies that can help improve the safe water supply in the coastal region in Bangladesh.

Despite a considerable increase in the number of studies on public perceptions of climate change, little attention has been paid to the development of public understanding of climate change in developing and less-developed countries, which have contributed comparatively few greenhouse gases emissions. This chapter contributes to address this gap in the literature by exploring how people construct meanings of climate change risks in an area at the forefront of climate change risks—the coastal region of Bangladesh. The study draws on in-depth interviews of local citizens, which were supplemented by field observations. The interviews reveal a recurring theme of localizing climate change risks in the context of local geo-hazards. Laypeople’s personal exposure to local extreme weather events, and experiences of weather and seasonal variances, influence their interpretations of mediated and non-mediated climate change information. The risks of local geo-hazards appear to be readily available as prior constructs in respondents’ minds, and are further intensified by newly acquired knowledge of climate change. The chapter concludes that laypeople’s perceptions of climate-change impacts in the coastal region of Bangladesh are constructed on the basis of their place identity, on the one hand, and the availability of regional geo-hazards, on the other.

Climate-induced hazards are adversely affecting the pond ecosystems in Bangladesh. Most of the poor communities collect water from isolated ponds for drinking and other domestic needs. This paper explores how the small pond ecosystems and associated livelihoods of the coastal communities are vulnerable and argues that the pond ecosystem can be a potential resource base for community based adaptation in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. A set of quantitative and qualitative tools were applied to 309 households across five villages. The study showed that 96% of the respondents are dependent on pond water for drinking. More than 50% households expressed that temperature, rainfall variations and salinity intrusion, directly and indirectly, affect the pond water. Physical parameter values of temperature, pH and salinity from the ponds showed changes across different seasons. Drinking water scarcity during pre-monsoon (March–May), winter (Dec–Feb), disaster and immediate post-disaster period among the communities is high. Salinity intrusion and surface runoff caused by excessive rainfall in short periods also cause deterioration in the quality of pond water. However, successful examples of pond water usage emerged through the discussions, especially during a post-disaster crisis, which strengthens the idea that ponds could be a resource base for community-based adaptation in the coast of Bangladesh.

The implication of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming popular in the field of Remote Sensing (RS) due to solving critical problems, like big data analysis, advanced classification algorithms, storage, etc. Cloud-based AI and remote sensing services allow users (with little technical background) to analyse imagery with high precision. This research has been conducted using Remote Ecosystem Monitoring Assessment Pipeline (remap) cloud service. The coastal region of Bangladesh has been considered as a study area. All available processing tools in Google Earth Engine (GEE) server have been utilized. Random Forest Classification (RFC) has been employed to classify the two periods (1999–2003 and 2014–2017) of pre-processed cloud-free Landsat satellite images. The classification algorithm produced acceptable Land Use-Land Cover (LULC) maps with the pixel-based error matrix, 88.38% for the first period (past 1999–2003) and 83.07% for the second period (2014–2017), respectively. Maps further highlighted changes in LULC classes over time. The LULC classes had changed substantially due to natural processes and anthropogenic actions. The study demonstrated the potential use of remap to monitoring LULC changes in the coastal region of Bangladesh. The outcomes will help to improve policies related to land management and forest conservation in the region.KeywordsRemapRandom forest regressionLand useLand coverSatellite imageMangrove forestConservationLand policy

Bangladesh is a climate vulnerable and agricultural country. Coastal region of Bangladesh is severely affected by climate change. To mitigate climate, change a solar pump of flow rate 180 liter per minute was designed and tested in farmers’ fields of Kalapara and Galachipa Upazila (sub-district) of Patuakhali district, Barguna Sadar and Amtali Upazila of Barguna district and Char Fasson and Lalmohon Upazila of Bhola district in the coastal region of Bangladesh for irrigating in high value crops like tomato and brinjal using pond/canal water. One solar pump was installed in each Upazila of off-grid area in 2018 and experiments were conducted during 2018-2021. Each solar pump was operated with 1300 Wp photovoltaic panels and the panels were also used for supplying electricity to home appliances and home water supply when the irrigation time was over. In farmers’ fields, water saving irrigation methods such as drip irrigation and alternate furrow irrigation were conducted. The water savings from drip and alternate furrow irrigation methods over famers’ practice (every furrow irrigation) for tomato were 48.79% and 30.39% and those for brinjal were 47% and 35%, respectively. The benefit cost ratio of the demonstrated solar PV system was found to be 1.62 which was higher than low lift diesel pump (1.30). A small solar pump of 0.8 kW reduced 1.76 ton of carbon emission per year than a similar diesel engine operated pump. The farmers in the project areas are using the solar panels for irrigation, lightings, operating fans, supplying drinking water, sanitation and other purposes. Therefore, solar pump is an environment friendly and climate resilient technology with multiple benefits for small holder farmers in the coastal region of Bangladesh.

ABSTRACTProduction gaps exist in vegetable crops at the farm level in inland and coastal regions of Bangladesh and these gaps could be minimized using different innovative/new agricultural technologies and improved crop management practices. The present study was conducted to compare yield, yield components of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), and income of smallholder vegetable farmers within different innovative technology practices (with plastic mulch and indigenous microorganism (IMO) vs. without plastic mulch and IMO) at Baliakandi, Rajbari (inland region); and Dashmina, Patuakhali; and Charfession, Bhola (coastal region) in Bangladesh. Yield and gross margins of cauliflower and tomato with plastic mulch and IMO were higher compared with no plastic mulch and no IMO, regardless of location. At Baliakandi, Rajbari, cauliflower yield with plastic mulch was 42.5 t ha–1, which was a 24.3% improvement over cauliflower yield obtained without plastic mulch (34.2 t ha–1). At Charfession, Bhola, the highest yield of tomato (57.6 t ha–1) was obtained with IMO compared with tomato yield (49.2 t ha–1) without IMO, indicating a 17.1% improvement in yield. Similar trends were obtained at Dashmina, Patuakhali. The difference in gross margin between tomato with and without plastic mulch was US$ 1146 ha–1 at Dashmina, Patuakhali. Similar trends were obtained in other locations. Innovative agricultural technologies have the potential to increase yield and income of smallholder vegetable farmers in inland and coastal regions of Bangladesh.

Shamsunnahar, Baki MA, Sarker A, Hasina Begum M, Zafaria M, Islam NN, Ahmed MdS. 2017. New record of Indian oil sardine Sardinella longiceps from the coastal region of Bangladesh. Ocean Life 1: 11-13. We report the first record of Indian oil sardine Sardinella longiceps from the southern coast of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. The sample specimens were collected from Pathorghata, Barguna, Bangladesh on 25th October, 2015. Morphometric and meristic studies were performed for taxonomic identification. Genomic DNA was extracted from tissue samples and mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I (COI) gene was amplified for molecular characterization of this species. The morphometric and meristic data and DNA barcoding confirm the presence of S. longiceps in Bangladesh. This report updates the geographical distribution for this species confirming its presence in the coastal region of Bangladesh, and extends the number of marine fish known from the area.

Sun drying of fish is an important method of fish preservation throughout the world. Due to its availability and product specific flavor and texture, dried fish has become an important part in the diet of people living particularly in the coastal region of many Asian countries including Bangladesh. Product type is considerably wide depending on the season, availability of fish, infrastructure and technical know-how of the processors. These are mainly processed from marine fishes that are caught by the artisanal fishermen and marketed throughout the country by multistep marketing channel up to reaching to the consumer. Due to the importance of the product in terms of market volume as well as its major role in the socio-economic condition of millions of people of the country, the sector needs proper attention by appropriate authorities to ensure quality and safety of the product produced and marketed. In this paper, different methods of sun drying practiced traditionally in the coastal region of Bangladesh and associated marketing systems are reviewed. It is expected that training of processors on Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures and monitoring by appropriate government body would be necessary to improve quality and simultaneously ensure safety of sun-dried fish produced in the coastal region of Bangladesh.
 Res. Agric., Livest. Fish.5(3): 381-390, December 2018

Salinity is one of the major problems in the coastal region of Bangladesh that contributes to 20% of the total land area. About 53% of the coastal region is affected by different degrees of salinity. Salinity intrusion in this area is mainly derived through climate change as well as anthropogenic factors that make this region more vulnerable. Hence, salinity intrusion has adverse effects on water, soils, agriculture, fisheries, ecosystem, and livelihoods of this region. To ensure the availability of food as well as drinking water, this chapter highlights how individual and community people have endeavored several adaptation measures to minimize salinity effects. Moreover, it further discloses governmental and other development organizations’ actions toward salinity to reduce its impacts.