Bangladesh is endowed with a vast tract of charlands (shoal) with a total land area of 830,000 hectares, two and a half times bigger than the area of the country’s capital Dhaka. Up to 90% of the land area in the shoals are available for cultivation.
However, low cropping intensity, lack of access to modern agricultural science and technology, missing market linkage and value chains have long been holding back charlands’ farm output from reaching its full potential.
In Bangladesh, charlands have over time been newly formed riverine land masses formed by the gradual deposition of sand, silt, and clay from the four big rivers - the Padma, the Meghna, the Jamuna, and the Brahmaputra - and their 500-plus tributaries.
More than eight million people inhabit the charlands of Bangladesh. But due to a lack of farm extension services, low market linkage, lack of infrastructure developments and low adoption of modern farm technologies, the predominantly farming communities of the charlands have remained content with low output and meagre profits.
Experts believe farm output in the charlands can significantly be increased provided the farmers there are provided with shorter-duration rice varieties, better breeds of vegetables, oilseeds and other cash crops and a well-established market value chain.
Coming up with the outcome of a three-year joint programme on ground research on Bangladesh’s charlands, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and Kansas State University, USA, (KSU) stated yesterday that the untapped potentials of the charlands needed to be unleashed sooner rather than later to secure future food security for Bangladesh.
They shared the outcome, along with some suggested policy recommendations, at a webinar held yesterday.
Research conducted at selected shoals in Rangpur and Patuakhali districts during 2019-21 found that Bangladesh’s charlands have a much lower cropping intensity (145%) compared to the national average of 200%. Cropping intensity is the number of times a crop is planted per year in a given agricultural area. It is the ratio of effective crop area harvested to the physical area.
Besides, an overwhelming 76% of arable land in shoals are up for rice cultivation, while other crops have to compete for land. The research findings clearly indicate that farmers can potentially make much higher profit by growing a marketable surplus of oilseeds, groundnuts, potatoes, spices and other cash crops than what they earn by growing rice.
The IRRI, BRRI, BARI and KSU researchers said if Bangladesh could provide the charlands farmers with shorter-duration high yielding rice varieties, the farmers could go for growing more cash crops and earn more income and contribute more to the national economy.
Develop market linkage, bring in farm technology
IRRI country head in Bangladesh Humnath Bhandari, noting that charlands were one of the six climate change hotspot regions, as designated under the Delta Plan 2100, emphasized developing market infrastructures and taking farm technologies to charlands farmers to have them effectively fight climate vulnerabilities and grow more food.
Some of the participating scientists in the charlands farm sector research presented papers at the webinar showing how a balanced rice-non-rice cropping pattern accommodating more cash crops could benefit the farmers. They recommended introducing high yield, short duration and flood tolerant rice varieties, more cultivation of rabi crops, i.e., potatoes, groundnuts, mustard, maize, onions, sweet gourds, foxtail millet, black cumin and establishment of good market linkage.
The webinar, in which the agriculture secretary, public sector farm research bodies’ representatives as well as scientists, academics and private entrepreneurs took part, was told that Bangladesh’s population is growing at two million per year, while the current arable land is decreasing at 0.45% per year, posing a risk to food security. While the expansion of crop production on the mainland is limited, the charlands present a good opportunity for maximizing crop production through development and promotion of appropriate, improved, and climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices.
The participants said that adaptive cropping systems in charlands would increase food production and farm income in Bangladesh as scientists had already tested and identified improved and climate smart crop varieties and cropping patterns for the charlands.
Yesterday’s research findings emerged from collaborative research carried out under a project – “Climate Change Adaptation of Rural Households in Charlands of Bangladesh” – funded by the National Academy of Science (NAS) and USAID.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Bangladesh is the seventh most climate change vulnerable country.