Through cyclones to floods, river erosion to salinity intrusion Bangladeshi communities have exhibited great bravery and creativity. However, with more climate shocks, resilience is not sufficient anymore, particularly for our farmers. Climate change is not a far-off scientific issue to close to 50 percent of the populace of Bangladesh whose means of living are dependent on agriculture. It comes in form of the losses of crops, the deaths of livestock, the destruction of fisheries and seasons. To them, one crop failure could lead to debt, migration, famine, and years of misery.
Climate adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and green growth is a topic of conversation with us. However, millions of exposed farmers continue to be at risk of climate without sufficient protection. If food security and rural stability are real issues, then we need to hastily establish affordable and dependable safety nets that protect farmers before disaster becomes a disaster.
Bangladesh has become the order of the day with climate extremes characterising the agricultural calendar of the country. Flash floods keep on destroying Boro crops in haors. Salinity invades into the coastal belt further along into the inland areas, destroying rice and vegetables. In the northern districts, heat stress decreases the yields. Fishponds, homes, and standing crops are washed away by cyclones. Entire families are dislocated overnight through erosion of rivers.
Behind each climate’s incidence lies a human narrative. A farmer borrowing at interest to replenish the fields, a mother selling animals to get food, a kid going to school to get a job, a family moving to slums in the city after losing a farm.
The farmers are constantly changing. Changing varieties, planting new crops, saving water. However, the electric shocks are coming with too much frequency and unpredictability. Old coping mechanisms fail when subjected to constant stress. Families can no longer be saved by hope.
The successful social safety programs have been developed in Bangladesh. However, climate change needs safety nets that are more rapid, more profound and capable of foreseeing shocks, rather than reacting to them. When disaster hits, the support level should increase automatically. Quick mobile money transfers aid the family in purchasing food, seeds and medicine – preventing distressed sales, excessive interest borrowing, school dropouts, and malnutrition. Speed preserves dignity.
Infrastructure also has the capacity to generate employment and resilience: floodwalls, canals, rainwater collection, mangroves and elevated seed and livestock storage. Each taka invested minimises future losses of the disaster.
The excluded groups are tenant farmers, women headed families, landless, ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities. Inclusion means that land tenure barriers, access to digital, and the appreciation of unpaid labor of women must be taken into consideration.
Insurance does not seem close or affordable to many farmers. Other technological advancements like index-based insurance (activated by rainfall or satellite data) can provide quicker payments and minimise claims. It allows farmers to make investments without fear because it comes with loans and advisory services. However, the poor cannot afford to pay the premiums on their own. It needs subsidies by the government and equitable oversight. Farmers are supposed to be covered by insurance and not exploited by it.
Money is good, but machines are important. Pre-emption should be communicated to all the unions, haor, and char. The salinity-tolerant crops, soil health and diversification should be supported by extension services. Farmer groups and cooperatives will be able to negotiate better prices and credit conditions. The policies on market stabilisation must avoid hitting prices on harvest. When the policies are developed in consultation with farmers, they are effective.
There are higher costs of ignoring climate risk than responding to it: recurring humanitarian aid, food crises, increasing poverty, urbanisation, and loss of social confidence.
Bangladesh needs to co-ordinate adaptation funds, disaster funds, agriculture subsidies and social protection, in a single resiliency approach – and agitate accelerated, equitable global climate financing. The contribution of countries such as Bangladesh to emissions is very minimal but the cost is borne by the country. Communities need to be supported in the cause of justice.
Some of the ways forward is to fraught shock nets and digital delivery, funding of climate insurance for farmers at risk, investment in climate-loving civic wellbeing and ecosystems, prioritising women, tenant farmers and the landless labourers, enhancing early warnings, extension and markets, and finally balancing climate, agricultureal and social protection policies.
Durability increases in fields and fishing ponds, on heaps and char lands – There the farmer stands each year and checks the sky. They should not be left to prayers only. They deserve protection – now.
The writer is a CEO and Protection Specialist in Favor Consultancy
