As we start talking about climate change, we first need to think about if we are directly or indirectly responsible for these changes. We also need to consider how we would be effected by these changes. One of the necessary things for any living species to stay alive is food, no one could survive without consuming food or some type of sustenance. A huge part food we consume comes from agricultural regions and lands our farmers cultivate. Agriculture and farming are highly dependent on the climate and because the climate is changing, we are seeing changes in farming practices and agricultural technology.
There are so many agriculture-based countries and one of those is Bangladesh which is in South Asia. Bangladesh has a tropical to subtropical climate characterized by wide seasonal variations in rainfall, temperature, and humidity, resulting in three distinct seasons. Agriculture contributes about 16% of the country’s GDP and employing more than 60% of the population. More than half of the people are involved in some type of farming. According to the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, climate change is highly affecting crop production because of erratic rainfall, temperature extremes, increased salinity, droughts, floods, river erosion, and tropical storms all of which are predicted to become more frequent and intense in the future. These changes could lead to falls in crop yields of up to 30%, creating a very high risk of hunger.
I was born in Bangladesh and lived there for about 17 years of life, so I have closely observed the impact of climate changes on the agriculture system. One of the things that I observed was one year we used to get good crops and other years we used to get bad crops. As the climate changed some areas saw the sea level start to rise those areas started to flood. Additionally, due to the high temperatures the soil in the fields where crops were being grown started to dry out creating terrible droughts, leaving no place for farmers to plant their crops.
As we know, most farmers are poor and they do not have other sources of income, so they are completely dependent on the farming. Due to climate change incidents like heavy rainfall, flood and dry areas caused of lack of rain, farmers face a huge problem growing crops. Thus, those poor people get even more poor. Considering those circumstances some of farmers are leaving their profession and trying to move into urban areas and get a secure job.
If that is the case and our farmers stop farming there will be less crops and less fresh food and many will suffer from hunger and there would be food shortages driving the cost of food higher and higher. Many will suffer from poor diets impacting their health. Therefore, I think we need to act fast and try to support our farmers and encourage them to grow food for us. As a community we need to slow down climate change by identifying the reasons for those changes. Agriculture is already at risk and if we don’t come up with solutions to slow climate change, people could die of hunger and staying healthy will be harder to do without a good food diet.
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