MUHA ABDULLAH AL PAVEL
Institute of Water and Flood Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
MASUD ABDULLAH CHOWDHURY
Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, School of Agriculture and Mineral Sciences, Shahajalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh
MD ABDULLAH AL MAMUN
Department of Folklore, Faculty of Social Science, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi 6205, Bangladesh
Adaptation; Livelihood; Disaster; Folk community; Wetlands
Socio-economic and Policy
Climate change
2.1. Study area The research was carried out in Jamalganj Upazila (Sub-district) of the district of Sunamganj of Bangladesh. The area is subtropical having a predominantly hot and humid summer and a relatively cool winter, with the mean annual rainfall of 3334 mm and the mean monthly temperature falling between 13.6 and 33.2 °C. The main occupations of the people of this Upazila are 73.92% ploughing land, 4.2% fishing, 5.12% non-agricultural labourer and 16.76% others. Access to land is as follows: 25% of peasants are landless, 45% small landholders, 29% medium landholders and only 1% have a fairly wide area of farming land. Of the land 23,094 hectares are arable with 92.47% producing a single crop, 7.11% a double crop and 0.42% a triple crop. Main crops are paddy, wheat, potato, onion, garlic, chilli and vegetables. Extinct and nearly extinct crops are tobacco, mustard seed and jute [13]. The great river Surma crossing Jamalganj Upazila makes the land fertile and irrigable. The other rivers like Nawa Gang, Baulai and Dhanu also contribute to the sedimentation of the land. The Upazila has extensive wetlands including Pakna Haor, Halir Haor, Chanuar Haor, and Dakuar Haor and the Beel of Patilachura, Pangna, Lamba, Baska, Chhatidhara and Kachma. 2.2. Sampling and data collection The research areas were selected for their floating garden farming systems. Folk farmers (i.e. ordinary peasants of the district) were selected randomly; about 30% of total farmers practised floating gardening in three Unions. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed for interviewing 30 farmers of whom 27 are male and 03 are female, with survey data supplemented by direct observation of their floating garden farming system. Originally, NGOs had just trained a few folk farmers to introduce floating garden farming practices in the study areas. And then, this practice spread as many attempted to use this method over the study areas. The researchers recorded the following details, during a period of one week in every month, August–November 2012: Details of the preparation of the floating garden, materials used to construct it, time is taken for each activity, labour, seed, other costs of preparation, type of vegetable produced, crop harvested, amount of production, gender roles and final use of crop (subsistence or sale). In addition, we interviewed key informants in the local administration, NGO and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture to cross-check the collected field data. Additional data were gathered on sociocultural aspects of practising floating garden areas, such as the reason for practising this agro-technique. Because the farmers are wholly dependent on one crop, the unit price (/kg) of each production variable was collected through a market survey from the local market by random sampling during one week. The market survey also provided price data to supplement gaps in the farmer survey and to cross-check field data. 2.3. Data analysis In organize to assess the profitability of the floating gardens, the study included financial analysis considering the timing of revenue and costs throughout the period of active use of the garden. Two discounted measures were used in the research.
International Journal of Environmental Studies, 2014, Vol. 71, No. 3, 261–269,
Journal