Farmers never say over in climate change war

COPING WITH CLIMATE CHANGE: As late monsoon and erratic rain patterns delay the planting and harvesting of winter rice, boro, farmers in the northern region are now opting for short duration aman varieties that can be reaped well in advance paving way for timely boro cultivation. Photo: Sk Enamul Haq

With the saline water from a gradually swelling sea continuously making further inroads into Bangladesh's prime arable lands and late monsoon upsetting the cropping seasons, agronomists reckon her as a virtual climate change laboratory.
Resilient farmers however would not give up. If the pictures taken right from the fields are something to go by, Bangladeshi farmers are taking all sorts of cope-up measures -- locally developed or based on scientific inventions-- to fight back the global warm up.
Agronomists fear sea level rise would induce salinity to intrude further into the main land as salinity-affected arable lands rose from 0.83 million hectares in 1990 to 1.2 million hectares in 2009.
Recipe for changes is all too obvious for farmers in the northern Rangpur region where farmers no longer afford to remain oblivious to climatic changes having serious ramifications on traditional ways of crop production.
They (farmers) say one of the most obvious fallout of climate change is gradual drifting of rain-fed rice season (aman) due to drought and delayed monsoon. Over the last couple of years, farmers in the rice-rich northern districts experienced the same problem of getting insufficient rains, missing out the appropriate time of planting aman seedlings, and then again, crop loss owing to inundation as late monsoon bursts with too much of rains within too short a span of time.
Changes in weather and erratic rain patterns not only pushed the aman season from June-July to August-September but also, as a cascading effect, delayed planting and harvesting of winter rice -- boro. And this made the country's top productive rice season vulnerable to sunstroke and susceptive to sterility.
Irrigated boro contributes 60 percent of the country's over 30 million tonnes annual rice output while the rest comes from rain-fed aus and aman.
Abdur Rouf, a farmer of Joyrampur village in Rangpur's Mithapukur upazila says delayed rain makes seedlings in seedbeds grow old and that's why “We have to invest more on supplementary irrigation so that aman can be reaped by Nov 15 allowing us to grow potato prior to preparing land for boro.”
Khairul Mostafa Bablu of the same village says due to delayed monsoon, aman growers had to go for supplementary irrigation in the last two years. Those who want to grow potato in between are opting for shorter-duration varieties like BRRI-33 and BINA-7.
The farmers have to compromise a bit in grains output, as the shorter-duration ones are comparatively little less productive than the traditional HYVs (high yielding varieties) but can be harvested a month ahead, thereby releasing land for potato.
Farmers in the northern region are particularly happy that rice science is providing them with shorter-duration aman varieties as those come handy to them to fight back climatic adversities like delayed monsoon that they have been experiencing since 2007.
Porimol Chandra Sarkar is a very known face among farmers in Rangpur's Pairaband union because they always find this young agriculture extension official by their side whenever they face any sort of difficulties in growing crops.
Sub-Assistant Agriculture Officer of Pairaband union Porimol blames last year's erratic monsoon (late and heavy rains in a short span of time) for damage of aman crops in many fields. He says daytime high temperature and nighttime cool and mists during September-October causes hindrance to flowering of aman and rabi crops.
Septuagenarian farmer Abu Bakar Siddiqui of Louhoni village says, unlike in the yesteryears winter now comes late and its duration is shorter. He feels that the gap between daytime and nighttime temperature is widening. Bakar mentioned larger infestation of insects these days. He recalled that there were not so many insects in crop fields 20 years back.
This correspondent got similar views from a pesticide trader, who could not agree more on what Bakar had said. Md Shah Alam sells pesticides at Shofi Traders in Rangpur. He says often he hears farmers complain that even after applying equal doses of pesticides as in yesteryears, they are not getting relief from pest attacks.
Abul Kalam of Joyrampur says, due to shifting of cropping seasons last year aman was planted late and so was harvested late. This resulted in late plantation of irrigated winter rice -- boro -- eventually exposing the crop to too high temperature in April-May. " That is why we got many sterile grains as BR-29 in last boro season suffered neck-blight.”
Dr Sk Ghulam Hussain, who closely monitors the probable impact of climate change in Bangladesh's farmlands and serves as a member-director in Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (Barc), declined to foresee any worsening scenario.
“We're in a virtual climate change laboratory, which is a natural advantage for us. Our farmers are innovative and they can cope well with adaptation technology.”
According to him, 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius projected rise in temperature over the next 50 to 70 years is nothing conspicuous. But he promptly adds, “If the rise is in winter, it's no problem for rice but if the mean temperature rises beyond 28 to 30 degrees Celsius during summer, that is not suitable for rice. This however can be adapted by deferring the flowering stage of rice.”
Dr Hussain identifies concentration of mists near coastal regions as a factor contributing to more insect infestation and diseases.
He thinks waning flow of fresh water from the upstream is also inviting intrusion of salty seawater further inwards.
BR-10, 41, 42 and 47 -- the rice varieties developed by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI)-- Hussain says made some breakthroughs in “our fight against salinity in the agriculture frontier.”
Dr Zeba I Seraj, who teaches biochemistry at Dhaka University and has been engaged in rice breeding science for years, says they're almost at the doorstep of infusing salinity tolerant genes into the country's best performing aman variety -- BR-11.
She noted that changes in climate are evident from more frequent and severe storms that have been stalking the region in recent years. “This year we experienced very late monsoon. Inundation and salinity are on the rise.”
Zeba said, “Like Vietnam, Bangladesh can go for mangrove plantation. This will help us combat salinity and erosion in the coastal belt.”
Aman season is shifting from June up to September because of very late monsoon, she said. “Delayed aman delays boro, thereby disturbing the usual photosynthesis cycle. As a result, more grains get sterile.”
Too much rain in too short period is of no use, it enhances farmers' cost on supplementary irrigation for the otherwise rain-fed aman fields, Prof Zeba pointed out.
Due to monsoon-induced season shift, boro suffered sterility problem last season, and that's why many farmers are switching to BR-28 this year from BR-29. Because of its longer duration, BR-29 is more likely to get exposed to hot weather. BR-28 is less productive than BR-29 but can be reaped before temperature rises beyond 30 degree Celsius.
Dr M A Mazid heads one of the eight hubs of the International Rice Research Institute's flagship programme -- Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). Mazid says as rains come late aman seedlings get old in the seedbeds and become less productive when ultimately transplanted in the field late in the season.
Mazid, who steered BRRI's Rangpur Station for many years and saw from a close range farmers' ability to adjust with changed circumstances, says the short-duration aman rice varieties hold the prospect of farmers' growing boro in time and avoid the risk of crop getting sunburnt in hot May weather.
Food Minister Abdur Razzaque reckons climate change has too much impact on the country's food security.
Given the volatility of international rice market, both in terms of output fluctuations and price instability, import and aid-dependence are not options that Bangladesh considers for ensuring its food security, he says.
“We've to face the challenges of climate change through various coping mechanisms and guarantee autarky in food.”