Changing Agricultural Systems Due to Climate Change – SESDO
Climate change is one of the most discussed and debated issues in the world today. Due to the impact of climate change, radical changes are being observed in the environment, society, water, people’s socio-social conditions as well as in the agricultural system.
The sector most affected by climate change is agriculture. Rural small farmers today are disoriented. Cropland The land that once produced large amounts of food grains is now not producing crops. When we ask the farmers, why is there no crop in the land? Then their answers were,
1) Salinity
2) Flood
3) The amount of sand in the land is increasing day by day
4) Various insects, diseases. (which was not there before)
5) Climate change (such as no or excessive winters, no or excessive rains in monsoons, excessive heating in summers or lack of water needed for irrigation or lower ground water levels)
Farmers are completely disoriented due to various diseases in the cropland, and small farmers today are free to use unnecessary and excessive pesticides without getting any income. At one time the land where paddy and jute were produced, today the farmers are not cultivating paddy and jute. The farmer who is cultivating rice in the land cannot guarantee that the farmer will be able to harvest the rice at home. Because the ripe rice in the field is burnt within 24 hours due to the attack of insects at any time in the paddy field. The farmer had never heard of this insect before and had never seen it. Farmers are not getting required water during paddy cultivation, the cost of everything has increased again due to which farmers are losing interest in paddy cultivation. Now that it’s winter, this year has seen farmers turn to mustard cultivation with some sort of compulsion. During the winter it usually does not rain, but this year when the mustard plant has flowered, the farmer’s mustard crop has also been destroyed due to 2/3 days of rain. Farmers only lose and lose. Farmers are facing repeated losses due to inability to adapt to changing climate change conditions.
In Katakhali village of Tala upazila of Satkhira district, SESDO has collected some important information by being present on the ground and talking directly to the farmers for the last one year. At one time, this village had a large amount of potato cultivation, Sugarcane cultivation, paddy and jute cultivation. But now in this changing scenario of climate change, farmers are shifting away from their traditional potato, amla, paddy and jute and are turning to oil crops like mustard, sesame and sunflower just hoping for a little profit. Yes, SESDO has been supporting rural small farmers through various projects with their own financing but it is very limited compared to the needs of the farmers.
Most people of Bangladesh are involved in agriculture. Today both agriculture and farmers are affected only by climate change. If this issue is not addressed now, we will face food security problems in the future and we will fall far behind in achieving the SDG 2030 vision and food self-sufficiency. In this period of changing agricultural systems due to climate change, farmers are the first to stand by. These debt-ridden farmers want help, they want a little guidance.
Tapas Kumar Mollick
Executive Director
SESDO (Social and Environmental Sustainable Development Organization)
Satkhira, Bangladesh.