Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture Adaptation in Coastal Zones of Bangladesh

Abstract

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. Please check back later for the full article. Bangladesh scored seventh in a ranking of countries most affected by climatic calamities in the second decade of the 21st century. Climate change poses a great threat to Bangladesh’s economy due to its effect on the agricultural system. The agriculture sector employs about 40.6% of the country’s labor force and contributes 14.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP). Various climatic factors such as changes in precipitation, temperature, sea level rise, salinity intrusion, drought, and natural disasters (storm surges, cyclones, etc.) impact the agriculture sector. These factors ultimately affect crop production and increase food insecurity. The coastal zone frequently suffers the impacts of climate change through coastal flooding, cyclones, storm surges, drought, salinity intrusion, water-logging, and so forth. These crises not only affect agricultural productivity but also lead to degradation of soil productivity and lower agricultural production/yield. To cope with the impacts on coastal agriculture, government, nongovernmental organizations, and communities have practiced a number of adaptation measures. They have adopted several measures such as using stress-tolerant rice varieties; crops that consume less water; short-duration crops; crop diversification; crop rotation; mix cropping/intercropping; efficient use of irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticides; soil conservation; floating gardens; sorjan cultivation; homestead vegetable gardening; and the re-excavation of canals. However, these adaptive practices are responsive and timely immediately after the occurrence of the effects of climate change. Taking this into consideration, it is imperative to scale up these adaptation measures and to synchronize efforts at various levels for their successful implementation by coastal communities in order to cope with climate change in a sustainable manner.