Abstract
Bangladesh is an agrarian country and about one-third of its cultivable lands are in coastal and offshore areas which are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. To adapt to such impacts, a number of policies, plans and adaptation measures have been suggested. However, it is not clear how many of these potential adaptation measures are actually in practice. In this study, we carry out an inventory of agricultural adaptation practices in the coastal zone of Bangladesh and present a synthesis of the inventory. The inventory is developed by recording multiple dimensions of adaptations. It records the purpose, geographic location, provider/beneficiary, timing, drivers, barriers to adaptation, gender aspects and sustainability issues of the adaptation practices. The findings of the study indicate that about 85 agricultural adaptations are now in practice, the majority of which are infrastructural-technological in scope. Almost all the adaptations are deliberate actions which come with a tangible aim of taking action/implementing change. The majority of the adaptations have been in response to long-term chronic stresses, such as salinity. Lack of capital, access to resources, knowledge and information, and centralised decision-making process appear to be some of the barriers to taking up the adaptations. The current evidence suggests that Bangladesh has embraced a mix of adaptations for agricultural development, though there are still areas for improvement.
M. Shahjahan Mondal, Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, Corresponding Author, e-mail: mshahjahanmondal@iwfm.buet.ac.bd.
Mohammad Towheedul Islam, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Debanjali Saha, Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Muhammad Shahriar Shafayet Hossain, Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Prodip Kumar Das, Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Rezaur Rahman, Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Acknowledgement
This work is carried out under the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA)’ project under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) program with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of DFID and IDRC or its Boards of Governors. The comments and suggestions provided by Dr. Helena Wright of the Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, UK and the two anonymous reviewers helped improve the quality of this manuscript and are gratefully acknowledged.
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Shahjahan Mondal, M., Islam, M.T., Saha, D., Hossain, M.S.S., Das, P.K., Rahman, R. (2019). Agricultural Adaptation Practices to Climate Change Impacts in Coastal Bangladesh. In: Huq, S., Chow, J., Fenton, A., Stott, C., Taub, J., Wright, H. (eds) Confronting Climate Change in Bangladesh. The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05237-9_2
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