Coping with climate change vulnerability
Bangladesh is one of the worst affected countries in the world by climate change effects. Being a delta and located between the Bay of Bengal in the south with off and on depression and the Himalayan mountain ranges in the north with melting glaciers, the susceptibility of the country to natural disasters is quite high.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the country's economy with more than 60% of the populace engaged in it. Rice is the staple food of the people covering roughly 70% of arable land for its production. The importance of rice in day to day life of the people cannot be over-emphasized; we are basically rice eaters. Bangladesh is yet in the transition of attaining self-sufficiency in food and as such the country is still deficit in production of food grains. Production of rice is often subjected to climate variability, often too much rain, sometime less rain/drought that affect the crop in the field often with total damage.
Lately, farmers of greater Rangpur have experienced 'Monga' (extreme constraint) with no work to do as the standing crop was washed away by the rain. Similar problem arose in the one (boro) crop haor areas in Sunamganj of Sylhet district. Just 10-12 days before harvesting of boro rice, the crop was lost due to high rain. To this end, however, breeding activities of BRRI and also BINA have been directed to develop rice varieties for major rice growing ecosystems facing a-biotic stress such as flash flood, tidal submergence, salinity and drought.
Modern rice production technologies developed by BRRI have been playing a vital role in increasing rice production and improving livelihood of the people by reducing poverty and providing food security. Modern rice varieties (HYV and hybrids) have covered 71% of the total rice area and contributed to more than 83% of the total production of 25.18 million tons of rice. BRRI has so far developed 55 new rice varieties and four hybrid varieties, which are already in farmers' fields.
During the last three and a half decades, rice production in the country has increased to 34.26 million tons from 10 million tons in 1970s. These phenomenal achievements have been possible due to extension of rice production technologies developed by BRRI as well as BINA and brought to farmers' doorsteps through the Department of Agriculture Extension agents.
Short duration rice varieties have recently been developed by BRRI and BINA, which are BRRI dhan 33, BRRI dhan 39 and BINA dhan 7. These early varieties of rice have already gone to farmers' fields. These varieties can be harvested in 100 days instead of 140-150 days as required for traditional rice varieties. Farmers have already started practicing the varieties with good harvest and generation of employment. The farmers' got 4-5 tons/hectare of rice yields using newly developed rice varieties instead of 2-2.5 tons/hectare as usually farmers could obtain using traditional varieties.
These early varieties can also be tried in flash flood areas of Sylhet haor floodplains. Early maturity of the varieties could help in harvesting the rice crop before arrival of the flash flood and averting catastrophic loss of crop.
Southern belt, which covers 30% of the arable lands of the country, is affected by varying levels of salinity. Agriculture minister always emphasizes development of this vast area as the possible rice bowl of Bangladesh considering availability of plenty of land not affected by development activities as experienced elsewhere in the country. In saline areas, rice is grown only in the wet (Aman) season, since fresh water (rain) is available, which can wash away the salt from the root zone of the crop. Winter (Boro) crop is not possible due to accumulation of salts at the soil surface through capillary rise of salty water from below. Soil amendment and crop varieties are twin important factors in ameliorating the soil and improving crop production under prevailing salinity situation.
Local rice varieties can withstand mild salinity (up to 4 dSm-1). Salinity affected areas account for approximately 10 lakh hectares. The salinity levels may go up to 8-10 dSm-1. To match the salinity levels, a good number of rice varieties have been developed by both BRRI and BINA. BRRI dhan 40, BRRI dhan 41, have been developed by BRRI, while BINA has developed BINA dhan 8 and BINA dhan 9, which can be cultivated in both Aman and Boro seasons and can withstand salinity up to 8-10 dSm-1. These varieties have high yield potential (4.0 -5.5 t ha-1). However, these varieties are facing some problems being dwarf in height with susceptibility of being submerged during high tide, where water drainage system is not good.
Good drainage system has to be ensured to allow new salinity tolerant high varieties to flourish and bring additional food grains to the national food storage system. Introduction of these varieties in saline areas can boost rice production to about one million tons in addition to existing output and thus is expected to contribute significantly to boost production of rice (Aman) ensuring further food security in the country.
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