Selection of the study area: The study was conducted in three upazilla’s (small administrative unit)- Kalapara and Patuakhali Sadar Upazila under Patuakhali District and Amtoli Upazila under the district of Barguna. These upazila’s are crisscrossed by many rivers and sub-rivers and cannels linked with Bay of Bengal and local communities face submergence, water logging, back water effect and salinity intrusion due to heavy monsoon rains, high tides and cyclonic storm surges. That’s why these areas were selected for this study. Description of the study area: Patuakhali Sadar Upazila occupies an area of 362.46 sq.km. Annual average temperature and rainfall are maximum 33.3°C, minimum 12.1°C and rainfall 2506 mm. Rivers are Andharmanik, Agunmukha, Payra, Lohalia, Patuakhali and Tentulia. Main crops are paddy, jute, mug, mustard, watermelon, vegetables etc. Literacy rate is 53.3%. Main sources of income are agriculture 45.44%, agricultural land owner is 70.99% and landless 29.01%. Main disasters are cyclone, flood, flash flood, river bank erosion, saline water intrusion etc (BBS, 2015). Kalapara Upazila occupies an area of 491.89 sq. km. Major disasters are cyclone, flood, flash flood, river bank erosion, saline water intrusion etc (BBS, 2015).
Research design: Combinations of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. A qualitative research is in-depth analysis of the problem, directed towards discovering new insights, meanings in order to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of human behavior (Cresswell, 1994). Exploratory research is the exploration of unknown research area in order to gain new insight into the phenomenon being studied (Brink and Wood, 1998). Therefore adopted an exploratory approach through employing participant observations through physical visit, in-depth semi-structured open ended questionnaire for individual interviews and FGD to explore the development of farmer’s perception on submergence rice cultivation in the context of submergence, water logging, inundation etc and existing vulnerability in agriculture sector. Quantitative method - questionnaires, surveys and structured observation was used to address questions that were primarily formulated based on the objectives of the study. Methods of data collection: The data was collected carefully to ensure that the people who participated volunteered and were not forced to be interviewed. The methods of data collection included completion of the FGD, semi-structured individual interviews (questionnaire survey) with the community members, direct field observation and Key Informant Interviews (KII). Additional information as secondary data was pertaining to the study was attained by accessing the relevant information from media such as journal articles, research thesis, recorded data, data from different local government administrative offices-Union and Upazila Parishad. KII was done with various organizations personnel, local leaders and elites working with this issue. During data collection the following questions were focused to get the information—i) types of problem raised due to submergence condition; ii) farmer’s activities to solve the problem; iii) change and trend in the present rice cultivation as compared with the past and iv) best practices adopted according to the farmers opinions about the submergence rice variety. Data processing method, statistical tools and techniques: After the completion of data collection, tabulation work including editing, coding and tabulation manually. In order to process and analyze the data, simple mathematical tools like average, percentage and tables, graphs were used to present the research findings in a meaningful ways.