Better farming practices for resilient livelihoods in saline and flood-prone Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the first and most at risk country to the impacts of climate change. SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL has implemented Disaster Risk Reduction activities in Satkhira District since 2010. It supported communities to identify hazards but also local adaptive capacities, and to collaborate on the ways to reduce these vulnerabilities through their empowerment. This case study enables reflection of these interventions, including: supporting access to improved seeds (stress-tolerant crop varieties and hybrid seeds), improving agricultural practices and developing integrated farming for small vulnerable farmers in Assasuni Upazila. Several lessons learned and recommendations were made to improve future interventions: • Working in close collaboration with the Agriculture Extension Office was a great factor of success, especially regarding technical capacity building and the long-term communication between agricultural state authorities and farmers. This can also facilitate the development of markets for transformed products and of new marketing channels. • The sustainable access to inputs must be carefully planned: farmers must be trained on seed storage and on “home-made” simple pest and disease treatments. Resilient seed banks can also play a key role in case of an emergency (if crops are destroyed by a flood for instance). • Demonstration plots were a very efficient method to disseminate good practices. • The transformation of agricultural products should be considered to generate more income and increase the consumption of food products throughout the year. • If the frequency and intensity of these disasters increase beyond what resilient practices and varieties can bring as a solution, other non-farming livelihood options must be considered. • The circulation of information is of prime importance in such a context in which farmers need to perpetually renew their techniques to adapt to changing and aggravating hazards and disasters.