Impacts of climatic variability on agriculture and options for adaptation in the Surma River basin, Bangladesh.

The objectives of this study are to explore the impacts of climatic variability on agriculture and to find out the viable options for adaptation to the changing climate. The primary data are collected through a questionnaire survey, key informant interviews and field observations in two agriculture-based villages of the Surma River basin. A household-level structured questionnaire survey was conducted on 260 households selected from 746 through simple random sampling. The study first explored the impacts of climatic variability on agriculture and fishery. Then, the existing adaptation measures undertaken by the farmer to combat the adverse impacts of climatic variability were identified. It was found that climatic variability adversely affects the crop production, crop diversity and cropping pattern in the study area. It hampers production rate, cultivation area, soil productivity and the mode of irrigation of an agricultural system of an area. Similarly, inauspicious climatic events also destroy the fishery and livestock sectors. In addition, the socioeconomic circumstances of farmers are also being influenced by climatic change. Hence, farmers are adopting feasible adaptation measures to cope with and adapt to the adverse and changing climatic events. The present study explored a number of indigenous and modern adaptation measures undertaken by the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]