Mofizur Rahman from Shyamnagar, Satkhira
Climate induced disasters such as floods, cyclones, river erosion and salinity are almost the daily companions of the people living in living the coastal region of Bangladesh. They experience one disaster after another in their life which creates negative impacts on their livelihoods. Due to these disasters their cultivable lands are contaminated with salinity, crops get damaged and many other losses are occurred. These natural disasters have a direct impact on agriculture. Farmers in these regions are constantly striving to ensure food security due to they cannot produce crops without any interruption and sometimes, their crops in the fields get damaged before getting matured and they cannot harvest. Besides, sometimes they fail to produce due to the lack of fresh water for cultivation. The problems in the agriculture sector have compelled the farmers to leave agriculture and linked to other occupations. And those who still practice agriculture have to cope with the disastrous situation and struggle to uphold their existence. One such farmer who still practices agriculture is Basanti Rani Mandal of Kamalkati village in Padmapukur union of Shyamnagar upazila. Her husband Paritosh Mondal, a speech-impaired person. Basanti Rani has been growing vegetables all year round on the road block of the embankment to achieve food security for her family by coping with the severe salinity.
Rani Basanti said, “Due to extreme salinity in the soil before cultivating any plant I brought dry grass and piled it on the Riverbank protection dam which locally called Baribadh. When this plant sprouts on that pile I take care of it so that it survives and grows well. This way, few days or months later this plant bear fruits.’ She further said, ‘This experiences led me to elevate the soil of the protection dam and make suitable for crop cultivation. This way, I grow vegetables. In doing so, first, we remove the soil from the char and elevate it. Then I plant the branches of various trees in the soil in a row which look like a house fence. This way, the soil cannot go scattered. Thus, when the soil hardens I use the water which is stored inside the elevated space. This soil is then mixed with home-made manure to make it suitable for cultivation of vegetable. Presently I grow vegetable in that elevated lands and I am able to meet the nutritional needs of my family to some extent.”
Basanti Rani also said, “When I got married, I did not have any place to stay. I inherited 5 decimal of lands from my uncle and built a house there. But during cyclone Aila the house broke down and we lost 5 goats. The fishes in my small ponds also were washed out during that cyclone.’ She went on saying, “ I have experience many cyclones and storms in my lifetime such as Sidr, Aila, Amphan, Bulbul, Nargis, Fani, Mahasen, Sitrang but among them Aila was the most devastating. Aila did the most damage to our life and livelihoods. Basanti Rani mentioned that today the frequency and intensity of cyclones and other disasters have increased and that is why the protection dam brook and salt water entered into the locality. As a result of increased disaster infrastructure damaged and plants died. She also shared that due to increased climate induced disasters the people in the coastal region suffer from different diseases such as skin diseases, diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, jaundice, colds and sore throat. On the other hand, the salinity intrusion has created immense crisis of fresh water for household use and cultivation. Due to drinking saline water some suffer from itchy skin and other diseases.
However, Basanti Rani has found a way how to grow vegetable of her own way and according to her statement she has succeeded in producing crops. She also has taken initiative to ensure fresh water for household use and cultivation by taking proper management of that pond. She said, ‘I built the house by raising the roof of the house to avoid excessive heat. I constantly take various initiatives to survive.’ She mentioned that as a result of river erosion, a lot of productive agricultural land is disappearing into the riverbed and many people on both sides of the river are losing everything and becoming destitute floating people.’ Learning from her experiences including Basanti Rani the people of the coastal region are taking different adaptive initiative to survive in the midst of disasters and uphold their existence.
Translated by Silvanus Lamin
