Climate change to affect agriculture adversely

Dhaka, Dec 3 (bdprem.com)—The three major rice crops in Bangladesh have been blighted in 2007 due to the onslaught of natural disasters. The boro harvest suffered as countrywide paddy failed to mature fully resulting in serious crop loss. Farmers from the north-eastern region saw the greatest devastation. Your Ad Here The July floods ruined the aus crop and the aman crop took the most recent blow from nature as Tropical Cyclone Sidr levelled most of the coastal rice fields. Experts say climate change will probably harm Bangladesh's food production most, which is not limited to loss of rice crops only. Fisheries, livestock, fruit and timber cultivation also face devastation. As rice and wheat production drop, food shortfalls will be a recurrent phenomenon, they predict. Rises in sea level, as well as increased sea and land surface temperatures, will be likely to impede agricultural production systems. Dr Zahurul Karim, chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council, told bdnews24.com that coastal soils are now being swamped by salt water as the flow of freshwater downriver is reduced. Diminished rainfall and damming of waters in the north is decreasing the flow of major rivers to the Bangladesh delta. Dr Karim, a former fisheries and livestock secretary, said agriculture and livestock rearing will not be possible in the coastlands due to the resulting increasing salinity. The country's shrimp industry will also be seriously affected by rising salinity, as shrimp are cultivated in areas of brackish water. Brackish water in Satkhira and Cox's Bazar districts—where salt and fresh water meet—is increasing in salinity as the sea level has already risen in both areas, he said. Hilsa fish—unique to this region and renowned for its taste—may well disappear altogether, Karim said. The hilsa being a migratory fish species, it may shift from its present habitat if the environment conducive to its propagation changes drastically, he said. Agricultural experts say that production of current salinity-intolerant rice strains will fall in the coastal regions. Wheat production will also suffer, with rising temperatures already being recorded during the crucial wheat-growing months of January-February. Aman is another of the country's major seasonal rice crops. Dependent on the right amount of rainfall at the right time, it is also likely to be affected seriously by change in precipitation patterns. Climate change may push the present average annual food shortfall of about 3 million metric tonnes to 4.5 million metric tonnes in the next few decades, experts fear. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Bangladesh country representative Dr Ainun Nishat told bdnews24.com that food security will certainly be threatened due to climate change. A three to four degrees Celsius rise in temperature will cut rice production by at least 30 percent, Nishat said. Dr Ahsanuddin Ahmed, executive director of Centre for Global Change told bdprem.com that the climate change phenomena will impact agriculture and water resources most drastically, aggravating floods, droughts and riverbank erosion. Cyclones and storm surges will be more frequent, affecting agriculture and quality of life grossly, he said. A recent Bangladesh Coast Trust report said agricultural production in the coastal regions is likely to be affected adversely due to increasing salinity in the environment. The still fertile coastal lands, highly suitable for rice cultivation, will be rendered totally unfit for growing paddy