Climate change threatens Bangladesh's MDG achievements - experts

Mon, 22 Jul 2013

By Syful Islam

DHAKA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Two years before the 2015 deadline, Bangladesh has achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations, but the impacts of climate change pose a threat to the country’s progress, experts say.

“The threat of climate change can diminish the hard-earned beneficial impacts of years of growth and development, not just for the people in impoverished settlements along coastal belts and river banks, but for the entire nation,” said Shamsul Alam, a member of Bangladesh’s Planning Commission.

Bangladesh has recorded impressive feats in lifting people out of poverty, ensuring more girls and boys attend school, and providing access to clean water, Alam said. Considerable progress has also been made in raising the number of children that survive beyond their fifth birthday, and the country has been recognised by the United Nations as on track to meet the goal of reducing child mortality by two thirds of its 1990 rate.

“There have been some improvements to address the country’s massive environmental challenges over the past decade as well,” Alam added.

But Ainun Nishat, an environmentalist and vice-chancellor of BRAC University in Dhaka, said the impacts of climate change were not considered when the MDG targets were set at the beginning of the century.

The issue came into focus after 2007 when a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that a sea-level rise of 1 metre would inundate nearly one fifth of Bangladesh’s coastal area and flood plain.

“The impacts of climate change will definitely hamper steps for achieving the MDGs (and) especially pose a threat to food security,” he said.

Apart from the risk of flooding, Nishat said climate change is causing variable rainfall. From 2007 to 2012 there was hardly any rain in Bangladesh’s northern districts. The recent experience in the capital is different, however.

“This year a full day’s heavy downpour (occurred) in Dhaka, causing huge waterlogging,” Nishat said.

CITY SLUMS SWELL

Climate change is also a factor in internal and external migration, with a negative impact on food security, nutrition and children’s education, areas where the MDGs are meant to bring improvements. It is also implicated in the spread of health-related problems like dengue fever.

Meanwhile, the government is struggling to keep up with the infrastructure needs of expanding cities.

Arif Sheikh, a rickshaw puller who lives in Dhaka’s Korail slum, said poor people living in the shanties are deprived of many civic amenities. “Children here hardly go to school or get medical services, thus (they) sufferer from diseases.”

Sheikh, who came to Dhaka from Barisal district in southern Bangladesh after losing his land to riverbank erosion, said finding work has become extremely competitive as the number of poor people moving to the city increases.

“People from coastal districts are pouring into the capital ... as they are losing lands and houses to the river,” he said.

Day labourer Rahim Mia, who lives in Dhaka’s Malibagh area, said migrating to the capital had not ensured even a modest living for him or his family.

“Every morning, several hundred people gather here to be hired by contractors. But not necessarily everyone gets a job since the scope of work is limited compared to the number of jobseekers,” said the 35-year-old father of two young daughters and a son.

“Riverbank erosion and salinity has driven us to the city, but the government (pays) no attention to us.”

ACTION NEEDED

Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, a nongovernmental organisation working on sustainable development issues, agreed the effects of climate change have emerged as one of the main barriers to poverty reduction.

“Climate change is causing lower food production, and adding difficulties for ordinary people,” he said.

Rahman said there is no doubt that global warming will undermine some of the Millennium Development Goals.

“Extreme events like cyclone, storms, floods and droughts continue to pose a threat to (their achievement),” he said.

Adaptation by poor nations will not work unless industrialised countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, he argued. “If sea-level rise is too high, no infrastructural protection will save the low-lying countries,” he said.

BRAC University’s Nishat said Bangladesh’s leaders must act quickly to avert disaster.

“We have to take steps so that the impacts of climate change can’t cause a food crisis, destroy the ecosystem and hinder the development process,” he said.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com

http://www.trust.org/item/20130722163326-vjgux/?source=hptop

Warming driving accelerating river erosion in Bangladesh

Thu, 23 May 2013

Author: Syful Islam

SIRAJGANJ, Bangladesh (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Worsening erosion along the banks of the Jamuna River has dramatically increased the number of families losing their homes and land – but dredging could help ease the problem, experts say.

Erosion is a long-standing problem in Bangladesh, with much of the country made up river deltas deposited by the region’s many rivers. But more extreme weather and heavy runoff has led to growing deposits of soil in the Jamuna River, which is in turn driving worsening riverside erosion, residents and experts say.

This rainy season alone, hundreds of families in Sirajganj district have lost their homes or their farmland, they said.

Amir Hosen, 70, of East Bahuka village, said he had gradually lost all of his two acres of land to the river, and now has had to rent about a tenth of an acre of farmland to house and support his family, at a cost of $70 a year.

“I had to move three times with my belongings as the Jamuna River continued eroding. I was a land owner. Now I have become a refugee,” said Hosen, the father of three daughters and two sons who have had to leave the area to find jobs.

He said erosion of river-side land now happens throughout the year. “Earlier, we saw erosion in April- May season, but now it is eroding throughout the year,” he said.

Atiq Rahman, executive director of Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview that due to formation of char – land that emerges from riverbeds as a result of accumulating deposits of sediment – rivers like the Jamuna now store lower volumes of water than in the past.

That leads to displacement of river water, with more of it pushed against the riverbank, leading to worsening erosion, he said.

“Getting no other option, water starts hitting the river banks as the flow increases during the rainy season, causing erosion and making people landless,” he said.

DREDGING AN ANSWER?

He believes that large-scale dredging could restore the depth of the riverbed and increase its ability to hold water, cutting the rate of erosion.

Dredging on the Indian side of cross-border rivers like the Jamuna, the Padma and the Brahmaputra means losses of land to erosion are much smaller there, he said.

“The rivers there (in India) are stable while here these are very much unstable,” he said.

But the soil makeup is also playing a role in Bangladesh’s more severe erosion, he said. Riverbank soils in India contain more rock, he said, and have more resistance to the erosive forces of water. Bangladesh’s riverbanks, however, have few rocks.

Some embankments in Bangladesh are strengthened with stones or concrete slabs, but not all have been properly maintained, he said. For such protections to be effective, “the maintenance costs have to be an integrated part of an embankment construction budget so that steps can be taken immediately when signs of possible erosion emerge.”

Jail Hossain, a member of Shuvogacha Union Parishad, a local government body, said the Jamuna’s erosion had eaten up three villages in 2007, forcing 2,000 inhabitants to move to Bahuka village.

In 2009 and 2010 they were again displaced by erosion and forced to move towards East Bahuka village. In 2011, the main Bahuka village was totally lost to the river and now East Bahuka village is also being eroded away.

Abdus Salam, headmaster of Chandnagar primary school, said the whole of Chandnagar village was eroded by the Jamuna River in just one year and the school had been forced to move a kilometer away to East Bahuka village, now itself under threat.

“This year the intensity of erosion is very high and I am in doubt whether any portion of this village will be left intact,” he said.

EMBANKMENT PROBLEMS

Aynal Mia, a farmer of the village, said the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) is focused on building new embankments but has not done enough to stop the continuing erosion.

“You see work on a new embankment going on, leaving a big part of the village for the river to eat up, instead of (workers) taking measures to protect the existing embankment,” he said.

Anisur Rahman, a sub-divisional engineer of the water development board, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that erosion has washed away three entire embankments in the sub-district since 1971, when Bangladesh gained its independence.

He said due to a lack of maintenance funds the board could not protect existing embankments with stones, sand bags, and concrete slabs. He agreed that river dredging was needed.

“Necessary dredging in the river can help storage more water by the river and protect the embankment from erosion,” he said. He noted that “erosion nowadays is much faster” than in the past.

Rahman, who was born and brought up in this area, said the changing river depth was evident from the types of ships that could navigate it.

“During our childhood we saw big ships were plying through this river. The depth of the river was nearly 100 feet then. Now it is reduced to 25 to 30 feet,” he said.

Fazlul Huq, a sub-assistant engineer of the water development board, said his agency needs Tk 1.5 billion ($1.5 million) to carry out a proper maintenance work to protect the local river embankment.

“But we don’t have such a budgetary allocation. So, we are now building an alternative mud wall so that water can’t enter the remaining part of the village this season,” he said, admitting such work was a short-term measure.

BCAS’s Rahman said the worsening erosion was in part of a result of climate shifts which have led to more rapid melting of ice in the Himalayas. The increased runoff carries additional sediment into the beds of rivers such as the Jamuna, leading to increased riverbank erosion.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com

Bangladesh's severe weather hotline faces test as tropical storm approaches

Mon, 13 May 2013 04:36 PM

Author: Syful Islam

DHAKA, Bangladesh (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A new telephone hotline in Bangladesh that gives advance warning of bad weather could be put to the test in coming days as a tropical storm threatens to reach hurricane strength over the country.

The hotline, launched in March, enables Bangladeshis to get recorded weather bulletins and flood forecasts 24 hours a day from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department by dialing a dedicated number – 10941 – on their mobile phones.

Officials will be hoping the phone line will help steer people away from danger as Tropical Storm Mahasen gathers pace as it heads north across the Bay of Bengal towards Myanmar, Bangladesh and India’s West Bengal region. It is expected to hit in the next 72 hours.

“The newly introduced service will help people stay updated about weather and flood forecasts and make preparations if disaster approaches,” Abdul Wazed, director general of the Department of Disaster Management, told Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview before the news broke of the impending storm.

Wazed said his agency hoped the phone warnings would give people time to prepare for extreme weather and reduce their exposure to risk, particularly as “the number of disastrous events continues to increase.”

The service, which is aimed primarily at the country’s vulnerable coastal population, is being implemented under the country’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP), a project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The disaster management programme aims to reduce Bangladesh's vulnerability to hazards and extreme events, including those linked to climate change, and to make sure 13 key ministries and agencies adopt risk reduction strategies.

Calls to the new hotline cost 2 Taka (just over one cent) per minute but Wazed said his department is trying to reduce the cost to ensure the service is used by Bangladesh’s poorest people.

“We are trying to reduce the cost to 1 Taka per minute or to make the calls free of charge so that more people can hear the alerts and avoid danger,” he said.

His agency also plans to air television and radio advertisements about the service to increase uptake and has already put up 110,000 posters around the country.

WARNINGS FOR FISHERMEN

Last year, Bangladesh launched a pilot project to warn ocean-going fishermen about extreme weather using an electronic device in their boats. Fifty boats were given the device, which could also be used to track them.

In the second phase of the project, which will start soon, an additional 300 boats will be given the device, using funding from the UK-based Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

Bangladesh and supporting NGOs eventually hope to make such devices mandatory for all ocean-going boats.

Tapash Ranjan Chakroborty, an Oxfam campaign officer in Dhaka, said there are some 12,000 fishing boats with sea-going capacity in Bangladesh. If they are within 90 kilometres of the shore, the device allows them to hear warnings and start for home, hopefully avoiding extreme weather.

A study carried out by the Bangladesh-based Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) found that the intensity and frequency of storms in Bangladesh has tripled in the last 30 years.

During the 2007-2010 period, Bangladesh had 10 to 14 storms severe enough for a signal number 3 warning each year. Three decades ago, just four or five such warnings were issued each year.

Rafiqul Islam, a fisherman in Satkhira district, said most fishermen today depend on the radio to get weather bulletins. The state run radio service reaches up to 50 kilometres offshore.

“We also carry cell phones and friends and relatives inform us about the weather. With the new service, we will be able to hear weather bulletins instantly and start returning if disaster approaches,” he said.

With cell phones now almost ubiquitous in Bangladesh, phone-based early warning systems will be a big help, said Atiq Rahman, executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies.

But he said he hoped the service would be expanded to provide much more localised and specific warnings.

“I think the time has come to provide area-specific weather alerts instead of general ones. The BMD (the meteorological department) couldn’t give any warning about the formation of a tornado that lashed Brahmanbaria district recently, killing many and destroying several villages,” he noted.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com

Safe drinking water disappearing fast in Bangladesh - study

Thu, 2 May 2013 09:45 AM

Author: Syful Islam

DHAKA, Bangladesh (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — The availability of safe drinking water, particularly in Bangladesh's “hard-to-reach areas,” is expected to worsen as the country continues to suffer the effects of climate change, experts say.

According to a study by the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program, some 28 million Bangladeshis, or just over 20 percent of the total population, are living in harsh conditions in the so-called “hard-to-reach areas” that make up a quarter of the country's land area.

The study found that char — land that emerges from riverbeds as a result of the deposit of sediments — is among the most inaccessible, along with hilly areas, coastal regions and haors, bowl-shaped wetlands areas in northeastern Bangladesh.

“People living in hard-to-reach areas are often vulnerable to natural calamities like flooding, riverbank erosion and siltation," said Rokeya Ahmed, a water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank. “As a result of climate change, salinity in Bangladesh’s coastal areas has increased (a great deal), causing a lack of sweet water. Women of coastal and haor areas need to go miles and miles to collect a pitcher of safe drinking water."

Worsening weather extremes, that bring floods, storm surges and cyclones, are contributing to increases in water salinity and other problems accessing clean water, the report said. Shahdat Hossain, a grocer in Matlab district, a hard-to-reach area some 50 kilometres from Dhaka, the country’s capital, said his town is now subject to regular river erosion and flooding.

“River bank erosion has turned many people of this area into refugees," he says. "Since this area is very close to the Bay of Bengal, the amount of arsenic in the groundwater is also very high. We need to dig much deeper to get arsenic-free water."

Experts fear that the approaching summer could intensify the struggle to find potable water. Shareful Hassan, a consultant on geographic information systems and a researcher on the World Bank study, says surface water sources have already dried up in many parts of the country, which will have a heavy impact on drinking water access, sanitation and ecosystems.

“In the drought-prone Barind Tract area, in north Bangladesh, you have to dig more than 350 metres to get safe drinking water,” he said, adding that the situation is expected to worsen since unusually low rainfall in the area means underground aquifers are not being replenished.

DISAPPEARING GROUNDWATER

Even in Dhaka, people have been reporting dwindling water supplies. Eftekharul Alam, an engineer for the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation, said groundwater levels in the city are falling drastically as a result of excessive extraction to meet the growing megacity's needs.

Dhaka’s underground aquifers are usually recharged with water that percolates underground in nearby districts, but the levels of underground fresh water in those districts have also dropped, allowing seawater to start seeping into the capital's aquifers. If this continues, experts say, Dhaka's drinking water could become increasingly undrinkable.

According to Ainun Nishat, a climate change expert and vice chancellor of BRAC University in Dhaka, over the last five years rainfall across Bangladesh has dropped by 50 percent and become increasingly unpredictable. That has led to a variety of problems, including growing salinity in groundwater.

“Salinity in the water of coastal areas has now reached over 20 parts per thousand, but the human body can only tolerate 5 parts per thousand," he said.

Nishat says the best option for drought- and saline-prone areas is to preserve rainwater in artificial ponds and distribute it to communities. And he agrees with other experts that the government must turn to technology to bring drinking water to those who need it.

Filtration and desalination plants are expensive, but experts say they offer the only chance to avert a looming crisis. Nishat suggests installing sand filter systems, in which hand pumps are used to suck water from artificial ponds through a filter that makes the water potable.

For those living in hard-to-reach areas, the search for a solution has become a matter of urgency.

“We now frequently face cyclones and flash floods which cause the swamping of croplands by saltwater and put us in danger," said Shafiqul Islam, a farmer in Barisal, a southern Bangladesh district that the World Bank study categorised as an "extremely" hard-to-reach area. “Our lives are under severe threat. Getting safe drinking water has become a big challenge."

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper, published in Dhaka. He can be reached at youths1990@yahoo.com

Women need more adaptation funding, activists charge

Mon, 21 Jan 2013

By Syful Islam

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) - Despite being disproportionately affected by climate change, women and girls are getting relatively little attention and money in Bangladesh’s climate adaptation initiatives, activists and negotiators say.

The Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund, financed with Tk 25 billion ($305 million) from the national budget, has financed only one project focused on women out of 109 climate adaptation and mitigation projects, they say.

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, coordinator of the Bangladesh climate negotiation team and a trustee of the trust fund, told AlertNet that women are just one of many groups still receiving relatively little funding.

“Climate change adaptation itself is a new issue for us. We have to tackle many aspects in fighting climate change,” he said. So far, women have not received much funding but “we will definitely finance such projects if the government bodies or NGOs submit proposals,” he said.

One problem, Ahmad said, is that “we received very few project proposals in this field from government bodies” and the fund is yet to support NGO projects.

Another climate change fund, the donor-supported Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund, has so far funded seven projects; none of those funded so far are focused on women.

Among the approved projects 41 percent are construction of embankments and dykes, 25 percent for environment protection, 12 percent for river engineering work, 12 percent for research, 4 percent for awareness building and 2 percent for water and sanitation.

The lone project focused on women’s issues - “Water Supply and Social Protection of Vulnerable Women and Children in Ecologically Fragile Areas” - is under implementation in Bhola, a southern Bangladesh district.

Hasan Mehedi, the chief executive of Humanitywatch, a non-governmental organisation that works in coastal areas, said research shows women are much more vulnerable to death during disasters.

When disasters strike, many stay behind with vulnerable children or elderly people rather than flee danger; others are burdened by heavy clothing or less able to swim than men. Of the people killed in Bangladesh by a large 1991 cyclone, 77 percent were women, and the casualties of Cyclone Aila in 2009 similarly were 73 percent female.

“Despite their high vulnerability, women and their safety get less attention from state functionaries,” Mehedi said. Coastal women in particular, are vulnerable to climate impacts, he said.

Water scarcity is one problem. Some women in coastal areas now have to travel eight to 10 kilometers from their villages to collect drinking water, and on the way some are subjected to sexual harassment and attacks.

WATER PROBLEMS

Mehedi said that as a result of worsening salt intrusion into drinking water sources, many women in the southwest coastal zone of Bangladesh are drinking water with three times the safe level of salt. Studies show they experience a range of health problems including reproductive issues such as eclampsia, miscarriage and stillbirth 20 times higher than in other areas of Bangladesh.

Coastal women and girls in Bangladesh are also suffering as the severity of storms, cyclones and flash floods has increased in the region, changes believed linked to climate change.

Their vulnerability deepens further when they are forced to take refuge in shelter centers in the face of the increased number of cyclones and flash floods, experts said.

Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, a junior minister for women and children affairs, told AlertNet that the Bhola district project, aimed at helping women and girls deal with worsening climate impacts, is now underway.

She also said another project worth Tk 1 billion ($12.5 million) is awaiting approval before the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund. It would help ensure separate women’s toilets and health facilities in storm shelter centres, she said.

“Steps are there to ensure the safety of women in disasters,” Chowdhury said. She urged NGOs to come forward with more women- and children-focused climate adaptation projects.

Atiq Rahman, executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advance Studies, also urged government offices and services to give priority to adaptation projects focused on women.

Climate scientist and vice chancellor of Brac University, Ainun Nishat, said Bangladesh’s climate change strategy and action plan focused sufficiently on women but “now we will have to implement projects to help reduce their suffering,” he said.

Nishat said it was important to consider women and children in all adaptation plans, not just those focused on women. “Focusing separately does not bring any benefit for women and children,” he said.

He pointed out that each government ministry has someone appointed to consider women’s issues. The bigger problem, he said, is that “some women- and children-related projects are not getting approval” from donors because the application documents are not properly prepared by the ministries.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/women-need-more-adaptation-funding-activists-charge

Bangladesh launches community insurance for 2 million fishermen

Tue, 18 Dec 2012

By Syful Islam

DHAKA (AlertNet) - Bangladesh has launched a community-based insurance scheme to provide financial security to over two million coastal fishermen whose work is becoming increasingly dangerous as the number and severity of storms increase and become more unpredictable.

Fishermen have welcomed the scheme, which is being introduced by the state-run Jiban Bima Corporation (JBC) in 15 coastal districts, and a significant number have already enrolled in it, each paying Tk 1,240 ($16) a year for insurance cover of Tk 200,000 ($2,500).

“If any fisherman dies after buying a policy, his family members or nominated person will get Tk 200,000 as compensation,” project manager Dulal Chandra Nandi told AlertNet. “If any policy buyer remains missing for six months, his heirs will get 50 percent of the claim and the rest will be given after another six months if the policy holder remains untraced.”

He said coastal fishermen are very poor and highly vulnerable to cyclones and other disastrous weather events. They are also easy prey for river pirates, and subject to attacks by tigers while fishing near the Sundarbans.

“We found that when fishermen die or go missing, their family members suffer severe financial problems. We have considered their agony while planning the insurance policy,” said Nandi. There are some 2 million members of the National Fishermen Samity (Association) who save some money every month, and the JBC plans to provide all of them with insurance cover eventually.

“The insurance policy is community based. The Samity will pay us the premium direct through banking channels from the fishermen’s savings. Paying only Tk 1,240 won’t be very tough for them, they earn a good sum during the peak season,” he said.

“We have noticed huge enthusiasm from the community,” Nandi added. “We can say that at least one million fishermen will enroll in the scheme in the coming year.”

He said the donor community was not involved in the scheme because the yearly premium was very small. “In India a similar insurance scheme closed down at one stage after donors withdrew their support.”

Rafiqul Islam, president of Satkhira Fisheries Samity on the southwest coast, told AlertNet the community had long wanted a customised insurance policy for fishermen.

“We are a most risky profession. Fishermen are the first to be hit when a cyclone or storm breaks. So their family members need protection, especially financial back-up which the new insurance policy will ensure,” he said.

Islam said dozens of people died and thousands of fishermen remained missing for days when a tropical storm hit the coast in October. The weather office hoisted warming Signal No.3 for the coastal districts but the storm struck with devastating power, more like a cyclone.

He said he believed the cost of the insurance was affordable, even for poor families.

“Even if a fisherman saves only Tk 4 per day he will be able to pay the (insurance) premium easily to get a benefit of Tk 200,000 in case of an incident,” Islam said. “The insurance is very much needed for people like us.”

Fishermen’s lives are at great risk because severe natural disasters are hitting Bangladesh more frequently, he said. And "when a fisherman dies, his family becomes penniless,” he said.

Ziaul Huq Mukta, Regional Policy Coordinator for Oxfam GB Asia, said the fishing community had become increasingly vulnerable because of the larger number of storms justifying a Signal No. 3 warning.

Quoting a study by the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL), he said the intensity and frequency of storms had increased threefold in three decades. In each of the past three years, Bangladesh has had 10 to 14 storms severe enough for a Signal No. 3 warning. Thirty years ago, just four or five such warnings were issued each year, he said..

JBC managing director Parikshit Datta Choudhury said many fishermen work as bonded labourers for years and their family members face serious financial difficulties if they die or are lost at sea.

Private insurance companies will also be involved in the scheme in the future to provide further benefits to the fishing community, he said.

Joint Secretary of the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry (MoFL) Shamsul Kibria said that nearly 150 fishermen die every year while fishing in the Bay of Bengal.

The premiums the fishermen pay will come down significantly as the number of policy holder increases, he said.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com.

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-launches-community-insurance-for-2-million-fishermen

Bangladesh resistant rice may not fill food gap - experts

By Syful Islam

Thu, 25 Oct 2012

DHAKA (AlertNet): Bangladesh is about to release five new drought- and salt-tolerant rice varieties to help farmers cope with rising salinity and more frequent droughts - but some scientists and researchers say the yields are little better than those of current types and will not be sufficient to meet rising demand in the face of climate change.

Climate scientist Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Centre for Global Change, told AlertNet Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in rice production but needs urgently to look ahead to 2040-2050 when climate change will have a greater impact on food production and when ensuring food security, particularly for the country’s poorest, will be more difficult.

Ahmed said Bangladesh needs to adopt a long-term food plan very soon, and it must ensure, among other things, that no more arable land is taken for industrialisation or urbanisation.

That will be a challenge as urbanisation continues in the country, including of farmers displaced by climate impacts and pushed into Bangladesh’s cities.

Of the five new rice varieties to be released soon by scientists at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), four are high-yielding and the fifth is a hybrid. They will increase overall rice output by three million tonnes a year if they are widely adopted, the BRRI director general told reporters.

The research institute has released 61 high-yielding modern varieties of rice since 1970, and 80 percent of the country’s rice-growing land is currently cultivated with BRRI-developed varieties.

Extreme drought and the contamination of paddy fields by salty water as a result of flash floods and storm surges have become very common in this low-lying country, one of those most severely affected by climate change.

Of the new rice varieties developed by the rice institute, hybrid varieties had yields of 6.5 to 9 tonnes per hectare, compared with 4 to 7.5 tonnes per hectare from other varieties. Despite their high yield, Bangladeshi farmers are less interested in growing hybrid varieties because producing and collecting seeds is more complicated.

Experts said the yields of the new varieties is not much higher than that of old types, but their advantage is the lower chance of losing crops because of saline water intrusion or drought, making them a worthwhile replacement for traditional varieties.

That may help keep up harvests in some instances of severe weather, but will not be sufficient to meet growing demand in the country in the face of a wider range of climate impacts, including more temperature extremes, experts warned.

“The yield of newly invented varieties is still not very attractive. So how can they ensure food security when the impact of climate change is adversely affecting us?” asked Atiq Rahman, executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies.

Rahman told AlertNet that climate change would reduce the output and availability of rice in many areas and would affect wheat production in drought-prone areas.

NOT SUFFICIENT FOOD SECURITY

“With the resistant varieties (of rice) we can cover the loss, but we can’t increase production to a level that can ensure food security,” Rahman said. “Adequate production of other crops also matters for ensuring food security,” he said.

Wais Kabir, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Centre (BARC), however, told AlertNet that drought- and saline-tolerant varieties of rice are helping to keep up production levels despite the increasing impact of climate change.

“It’s one kind of technological backup so that farmers don’t lose their crops and can avoid financial hurdles. Earlier, we noticed paddy plants wither and die before maturity as those were not drought or saline tolerant. Now farmers rarely face the problem, after introduction of these varieties,” he said.

Kabir said rising temperatures particularly affect wheat at the flowering stage. “We develop the varieties taking into consideration all the aspects,” he said. “We are now giving priority to inventing a quick-growing variety so that one Rabi crop (winter wheat crop) can be cultivated between two rice harvests.”

“Since Bangladesh is not at the stage of mitigating the impact of climate change, our effort is to adapt to the changed environmental conditions,” Kabir said. Efforts are also being made to change the cultivation process, for instance by using less water and emitting less greenhouse gas, he said.

Climate scientist Ahsan Uddin Ahmed said part of the challenge was in ensuring an adequate supply of a range of crops to poor people, to ensure overall food security.

Thanks to the invention of new varieties, Bangladesh is well placed to meet its food needs until 2035, he predicted.

“But by 2015 we have to be prepared for 2040-2050, when the impact of climate change will affect us more adversely and will surpass our present achievement in the crop sector. Food production will be hampered and poor people will face further obstacles in food collection,” Ahmed said.

Syful Islam is a journalist with the Financial Express newspaper in Bangladesh. He can be reached at: youths1990@yahoo.com

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/bangladesh-resistant-rice-may-not-fill-food-gap-experts/