Impacts of Climate-Induced Events on the Season-Based Agricultural Cropping Pattern and Crop Production in the Southwestern Coastal Region of Bangladesh

Abstract

Agricultural cropping pattern and crop production in the Southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh is affected severely by climate-induced events and climatic variability. This study shows the impacts of climatic-induced events (e.g., cyclone Sidr and Aila) on agricultural cropping patterns and crop production in two disaster-prone Southwestern coastal districts (i.e., Khulna and Satkhira) in Bangladesh. For analyzing the trend of climatic variability (e.g., temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity), 35 years (1980–2014) of climatic data were used. This study shows that the agricultural crop production in the selected Southern coastal region of the country had declined significantly when the two major cyclones (i.e., Sidr and Aila) approached in 2007 and 2009, respectively. A correlation analysis has been performed between annual average crop production and annual average climatic data to identify the influence of climatic variability on crop production.