ABSTRACT
This research focuses on community resilience to natural disasters, and directly addresses United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, on taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. The study closely follows the methodology of Habiba et al. (2012), specifically exploring Bangladeshi perceptions of meteorological and agricultural drought, and people’s adaptation to water shortages, with a wider group of stakeholders. A longer version of the paper is published at https://csd.ulab.edu.bd/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2017/05/Farmers-Perception-on-Climate-Change-and-Adaptation-Related-to-Drought-The-Case-of-Northern-Part-of Bangladesh.pdf. Six villages in three districts of Northwest Bangladesh were selected for study, as their residents had recently experienced droughts. One extreme, and up to four severe droughts, were identified during the last 39 years, using a three-month Standardized Precipitation Index. A diverse set of techniques including interviews with farmers and other key informants, and semi-structured focus group discussion, was used to draw out views. Respondents were aware that droughts occurred periodically, and that local crop production, livelihoods, health and society were adversely affected. They believed that drought frequency was increasing due to climate change, and as a consequence, farmers were either planting their crops earlier try to avoid potential water shortages or making other adjustments to the cropping regime later on in the growth cycle. Half of the respondents had brought their cropping time forward by between 11 and 15 days, whilst others delayed planting in the hope of avoiding water shortages. Farmers had also explored some other options to reduce their drought risks. These included choosing more drought-resistant crops, ploughing the land deeply, incorporating composted manures in order to improve the soil’s water retention properties and digging ponds for storing irrigation water. Farmers recovered from drought losses by borrowing from various lenders, cattle rearing or selling properties. In recent years, they had received support including seeds, fertilizers, loans and direct relief from NGOs to mitigate drought impacts. Respondents mentioned that wheat grows particularly well in drought-prone areas, followed by mustard, corn, lentils, potato, linseed, masakalai(peas), paddy rice and sugarcane. Farmers that grew a range of crops were more economically resilient during periods of drought; however, not all the choices were appropriate. Recommendations for improving resilience to drought are suggested.
