Adopting climate-smart practices

A leading chamber of commerce in the country, the ICCB (International Chamber of Commerce, Bangla-desh) has recently been promoting the idea of adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the country. These practices are thought to be essential for smallholder farmers to increase their capacity to withstand climate-induced changes and the havoc they may wreak with agricultural output. "Climate change reduces agricultural productivity and leads to greater instability in crop production, disrupting the global food supply and resulting in food and nutritional insecurity," according to the editorial of the current news bulletin of the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) released this week.
Smallholder farmers dominate the agriculture scene in the country with their shares in production of comparable order. Although the trend recently is in favour of a shift towards commercial farming that involves high value crops, fisheries and animal products, farmers --- both large and small --- could do much better had they access to CSA information and practices. According to the World Bank, "strengthening climate information services and making them easily accessible to farmers would greatly improve their capacity to adopt' climate-resilient cultivation practices. A case in point is the salt intrusion into irrigation canals. This prevents their use for commercial or household gardening in the country's southern regions. If farmers knew where and when intrusion would occur by the help of salinity meters, they could make preferences for appropriate crops as well as adopt mitigation strategies beforehand. Then it's not only increased salinity across the coastal regions. Unpredictable weather patterns like increasing temperatures, weather variability, invasive crops and pests coupled with more frequent extreme weather events have thrown agricultural production patterns and planning into uncertainty. These conditions are creating situations which need to be tackled head on by making use of technology to give smaller farmers a fighting chance to mitigate some of the challenges. As pointed out by ICCB, "agriculture is a major part of the climate problem. Climate change is reducing crop yields, the nutritional quality of major cereals, and lowering livestock productivity. The most significant adaptation investment is needed in agriculture". These temperature changes and extreme weather events are part of the conundrum brought about by release of CO2 in atmosphere.
Even today, agriculture provides 16.5 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and remains the largest employer of people in the country. It provides 87 per cent rural households with employment, contributing to a portion of their income. According to World Bank data, the population has almost doubled since the 1980s reaching approximately 161 million in 2016 and with rapid urbanisation has come fast infrastructure development and industrialisation. As millions moved to urban centers, housing projects - public and increasingly private of late --- has put greater pressure on arable land. Data show that arable land has decreased from 0.11 ha/capita in 1980 to 0.05 ha/capita in 2014.
Given the current pattern, the rapidly changing climate conditions will trigger annual GDP losses, in the range of 1.0 to 2.0 per cent. According to analysts, agricultural productivity in Bangladesh remains the lowest among countries in South Asia and beyond. One report claims that with a US$1.2 billion in adaptation by 2030, the country could prevent projected damages and loss to GDP of US$11.6 billion. Bangladesh's problem mounts because it is yet to adopt zoning of its land. This has led to unplanned urbanisation and loss of precious arable lands. It is not just access to CSA information but also to arable lands that together hold key to saving farmers from the adverse climate change.

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