Crop Adjustment Processes to Extreme Floods

Abstract

This chapter investigates farmers' crop adaptation processes in response to three recent devastating floods in Islampur, chosen as a case-study area in rural Bangladesh. This chapter reports a multi-method research project which comprised a questionnaire survey, focus-group discussions, and interviews with agricultural block supervisors, the purpose of this chapter being to ascertain how farmers adapt and adjust in response to 'normal' floods which are almost annual events in the case-study area. The author analyses three recent severe floods in Bangladesh, occurring in 1988, 1995 and 1998, and reviews the adaptation techniques and strategies embraced by the same group of farmers in order to survive the more devastating inundations which occur from time to time. A riverine agricultural system in the flood-prone Jamuna river basin was the focus for this investigation. In this chapter the author compares the adaptation and adjustment processes employed by the farmers, and in particular the routine and tactical strategies applied by the farmers in normal flood events as well as in floods with different hydrological characteristics as experienced in 1988, 1995 and 1998. This chapter concludes that vulnerable farmers are highly resilient and, with appropriate support, their adjustments can be sustainable. This enquiry showed that in the face of climate change both the inclusion of autonomous adaptations into planning and policy-making and the enhancement and support of community-based adaptation can be effective in ensuring the survival of riverine farming systems. This case-study can be considered as a key reference case in regard to vulnerable locations in mega-delta basins, particularly in respect to Bangladesh.