traditional coping strategies of rural people living in flood … · (ffiinnaall trreeppoorr t)bbyy...

((FFIINNAALL RREEPPOORRTT BBYY DDEEVV FFRROONNTT)) –– TTRRAADDIITTIIOONNAALL CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

i

A

TRADITIONAL COPING STRATEGIES OF RURAL PEOPLE LIVING IN

FLOOD-PRONE AREAS IN NORTH-WEST BANGLADESH

HASAN SHAFIE SIDDIQUR RAHMAN

Development Frontiers Dhaka, 23 January 2009


ii

TTRRAADDIITTIIOONNAALL CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

OOFF RRUURRAALL PPEEOOPPLLEE LLIIVVIINNGG IINN FFLLOOOODD PPRROONNEE AARREEAASS IINN NNOORRTTHHWWEESSTT

BBAANNGGLLAADDEESSHH

HASAN SHAFIE SIDDIQUR RAHMAN

TTHHEE RREESSEEAARRCCHH TTEEAAMM Senior Programme Analyst : Kazi Sunzida Lisa Programme Analyst : Hasina Akter Mita Research Associate : A. S. M. Masudul Hasan Research Assistant : Mosharraf Hossain


iii

Copyright @ RDRS Completed in Jauary 2009 by RDRS Bangladesh Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service House 43, Road 10, Sector 6, Uttara, Dhaka-1230 Tel: 880-2-895 4384 - 85 Fax: 880-2-895 4391 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rdrsbangla.net Research Organization: Development Frontiers 329 Elephant Road, South Dhanmondi R/A, Dhaka – 1205 Bangladesh. Phone: 06662613341 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.devfront.org Cover Design: Layout and Typeset: ISBN no: All rights are reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from the authors or RDRS. Any person making any unauthorized act in relation to this report may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

AACCKKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEEMMEENNTT

mailto:[email protected]�


iv

This report is an outgrowth from a research work being conducted in two districts of Northwest Bangladesh. We have been recipient of many, many kindnesses without which this work would probably never have appeared. We acknowledge the assistances of the many who kindly extended their wholehearted coopera-tion in collecting, organizing and analyzing data presented in this report at every stages leading towards accomplishment. We gratefully acknowledge all of them.

We owe our gratitude to the personnel of RDRS Bangladesh for their respective cooperation during the whole process as well as their sincere and valuable comments on the draft report, especially Mr. Imrul Kayes Muniruzzaman, Director, NBI; Mr, Anthony D’cruze, Project Development Coordinator; and Ms. Sabina Yeasmein, Coordinator Advocacy. We also would like to acknowledge RDRS Bangladesh for providing financial support for this research. We owe our thanks to Mr. A. K. M. Mamunur Rashid, Programme Manager, CDMP of UNDP for extending earnest support and suggestions unto the research team. In recapitulating the contributions we received, we express our gratitude to Mr. Nazrul Islam, PIO, RDRS, Mr. Md. Dulal, Mr. Md. Shamsul, Mr. Jashimud-din and Mr. Md. Sarwar. Finally, we express our deepest gratitude to all the respondents of this research. They are the actual owner of the primary data presented in this research. We can never equate their respective contribution and cooperation by mere expressing gratefulness.

HHAASSAANN SSHHAAFFIIEE SSIIDDDDIIQQUURR RRAAHHMMAANN


v

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. Acknowledgement List of Acronyms

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1-12 1.1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.2. THE SITUATION AND CONTEXT: PLACE AND PEOPLE 2

1.2.1. ECOLOGICAL FEATURES OF NORTHWEST BANGLADESH 2 1.2.1.1. TOPOGRAPHY 2 1.2.1.2. THE CLIMATE 2 1.2.1.3. RIVER SYSTEMS AND WETLANDS 2 1.2.1.4. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY 3

1.2.2. PROFILING DISASTERS IN KURIGRAM AND LALMONIRHAT 4 1.2.3. FLOOD AND FLASH FLOOD IN KURIGRAM AND LALMONIRHAT 4 1.2.4. FEATURES OF VULNERABILITIES AND RISKS 4

1.3. SCOPING AND FRAMING THE CONCEPTS 5 1.3.1. THE FRONTLINE PEOPLE: RISK PERCEPTION AND COPING STRATEGIES 5 1.3.2. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND COPING RESPONSE 6 1.3.3. LIVELIHOOD RESOURCES AND ABILITY TO COPE 8 1.3.4. PROACTIVE AND REACTIVE COPING 9

1.3.4. 1. EX-ANTE OR PROACTIVE RISK COPING 9 1.3.4.2. EX-POST OR REACTIVE LOSS MINIMIZING COPING 10

1.4. PROFILING THE RESEARCH ISSUES 10 1.4.1. PROBLEM STATEMENT 10

1.4.2. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES 11 1.4.3. OUTLINE OF THE REPORT 12

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY 13-21 2.1. THE STUDY DESIGN 13

2.1.1. RESEARCH TEAM 13 2.2. STEP ONE: PROBLEM FRAMING: PLANNING AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOP-

MENT 14

2.2.1. REVIEW OF SECONDARY INFORMATION 14 2.2.2. DEVELOPING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES 14

2.2.2.1. PRE-TESTING AND FINALIZING 15 2.3. STEP TWO: PROFILING SCOPE AND CONTEXT MODELLING 15

2.3.1. SITES SELECTION 15 2.3.2. SAMPLING TECHNIQUES 15

2.3.2.1. MULTISTAGE CLUSTER SAMPLING 15 2.3.2.2. STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING 16

2.3.3. DATA COLLECTION STRATEGIES 16 2.3.3.1. ACTIVITIES AT RESEARCH SITES 16

2.3.4. DATA COLLECTION TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES 17 2.3.4.1. GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND LEARNING WORKSHOPS 17 2.3.4.2. SEMI-STRUCTURED AND IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS 17 2.3.4.3. KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEWS (KII) 17 2.3.4.4. OTHER PRA TOOLS 17

2.4. STEP THREE: ANALYSIS AND SCREENING 18 2.4.1. DATA PROCESSING 18 2.4.2. QUALITY CONTROL 18 2.4.3. METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS 19

2.4.3.1. ANALYSIS OF INTERVIEWS 19 2.4.3.1. ANALYSIS OF OBSERVATIONS 19


vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No.

2.5. STEP FOUR: APPRAISAL AND ASSESSMENT 20 2.5.1. PRODUCTIVITY 20 2.5.2. STABILITY 20 2.5.3. EQUITABILITY 20 2.5.4. SUSTAINABILITY 21 2.5.5. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 21

CHAPTER THREE: PROFILING THE STUDY AREA 22-25 3.1. THE STUDY AREA BACKGROUND 22

3.1.1. THE STUDY AREA - KURIGRAM DISTRICT 22 3.1.1.1. THE LOCATIONS OF THE STUDY SITES 22 3.1.1.2 ECOLOGICAL FEATURES 23 3.1.1.3. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY 23 3.1.1.4. INFRASTRUCTURAL SCENARIO 23

3.1.2. THE STUDY AREA- LALMONIRHAT DISTRICT 23 3.1.2.1. THE LOCATIONS OF THE STUDY SITES 23 3.1.2.2 ECOLOGICAL FEATURES 23 3.1.2.3. AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY 24

3.2. PROFILING RISKS AND HAZARDS 24 3.3. OVERVIEW OF THE RISK ENVIRONMENT 24 3.4. PEOPLE AT RISK AND THE MOST VULNERABLE GROUPS OF THE AREA 24 3.5. DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF THE RESPONDENT 24

CHAPTER FOUR: INDIGENOUS APPRAISAL OF RISKS AND THREATS 26-38 4.1. INDIGENOUS ASSESSMENT OF RISK SITUATION 26

4.1.1. IDENTIFICATION OF HAZARD THREAT AND ESTIMATION 26 4.1.1.1. FLOOD– THE MOST FREQUENT EVENT 26 4.1.1.2. RIVER BANK EROSION– LIVES ON THE MOVE 27 4.1.1.3. KALBOISHAKHI/ NOR’WESTERS 27 4.1.1.4. DROUGHT 27

4.1.2. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE OF EARLY WARNING 28 4.1.2.1. TRADITIONAL INDICATORS 28

4.1.3. ASSESSMENT OF VULNERABILITIES OF LOCAL PEOPLE 30 4.1.3.1. AGRICULTURE 30 4.1.3.2. HOMESTEAD GARDENING 31 4.1.3.3. INFRASTRUCTURE 31 4.1.3.4. HOUSING 32 4.1.3.5. LIVELIHOODS, OCCUPATION AND INCOME 32 4.1.3.6. FOOD SUPPLY AND STATE OF NUTRITION 32 4.1.3.7. SAFE DRINKING WATER AND SANITATION 32 4.1.3.8. STATE OF HEALTH AND DISEASES 33 4.1.3.9. SHELTER 33

4.1.4. MOTIVATIONAL AND ATTITUDINAL DIMENSIONS OF VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT 34 4.1.5. INDIGENOUS PERCEPTION OF RISK ESTIMATION AND EVALUATION 34

4.2. ASSESSMENT OF SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL MEDIATING CONDITIONS 35 4.2.1. SOCIO-CULTURAL FEATURES 35

4.2.1.1. INTRA-HOUSEHOLD DYNAMICS: THE GENDERED DIMENSION 35 4.2.1.2. KINSHIP GROUPS 35 4.2.1.3. INFORMAL SOCIAL GATHERINGS 35 4.2.1.4. SOCIAL CAPITAL 36 4.2.1.5. EDUCATION 36

4.2.2. MULTIMEDIATING PROCESSES AND INSTITUTIONAL FEATURES 36 4.2.2.1. SAFETY NET PROGRAMMES AND GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS 36


vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. 4.2.2.2. LOCAL GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS 38 4.2.2.3. COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATIONS 38 4.2.2.4. NON-GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES 39

CHAPTER FIVE: INDIGENOUS COPING STRATEGIES 40-59 5.1. RESILIENT HOUSING STRUCTURE AND COPING 40

5.1.1. RAISING PLINTH OF THE HOUSE 40 5.1.2. MAKING SCAFFOLD IN THE HOUSE 40 5.1.3. RAISING PLINTH OF ANIMAL HOUSE (GOAL GHOR) 41

5.2. COPING WITH FOOD INSECURITY 42 5.2.1. SEED STORAGE 42

5.2.1.1. PADDY GRAIN STORAGE 42 5.2.1.2. VEGETABLE SEED STORAGE 42

5.2.2. FOOD PRESERVATION 43 5.2.2.1. SIDOL 43 5.2.2.2. DRY FISH 43

5.2.3. HOMESTEAD GARDENING 44 5.3. COPING WITH WATER SCARCITY 45

5.3.1. RAISING TUBE WELL 45 5.4. COPING WITH ENERGY USE AND EFFICIENCY 45

5.4.1. MAKING MOVABLE CHULA (ALGA CHULA) 46 5.4.2. FUEL PRESERVATION 46 5.4.3. PRESERVATION OF COW DUNG AS FUEL 46 5.4.4. MAKING GHUCHI 47

5.5. OPTIMIZING PRODUCTION PROVISO AND COPING 48 5.5.1. KAON 48 5.5.2. PERA 48 5.5.3. MUSHURI KALAI 49 5.5.4. TRADITIONAL IRRIGATION TECHNIQUE - WELL/ CHUAA 49 5.5.5. TOLA 50 5.5.6. ORGANIC MANURE 50 5.5.7. GROUND NUT 50 5.5.8. MAIZE 52 5.5.9. SUGAR CANE 53 5.5.10. ONION 53 5.5.11. BANANA 55 5.5.12. BHENDA CULTIVATION 56 5.5.13. FISH COLLECTION 57

5.6. COPING AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE 58 5.6.1. BRIDGE OVER THE WATER BODIES 58 5.6.2. PILLING WITH BAMBOO TO PROTECT THE ROAD 59

CHAPTER SIX: LIVELIHOODS, TOLERANCE THRESHOLD LEVEL AND RESILIENCE 60-72

6.1. LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS 60 6.2. FOOD SECURITY: THE CORE CONCERNS OF LIVELIHOOD STABILITY 61

6.2.1. THE LESS POOR OR MIDDLE FARMERS’ PERSPECTIVE 61 6.2.2. THE SHARE-CROPPERS AND THE MARGINAL FARMERS 62 6.2.3. TOLERANCE THRESHOLD LEVEL OF THE WOMEN 62 6.2.4. PWDS AND EXCLUDED GROUPS 63 6.2.5. THE RICH AND THE SURPLUS FARMERS 63

6.3. REGENERATIVE COPING STRATEGIES, ADAPTATION AND RESILIENCE 64 6.3.1. SEASONALLY DIVERSIFIED PRODUCTION SYSTEMS 65 6.3.2. DIVERSIFICATION OF LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES 66


viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. 6.3.3. THE ROLE OF WOMEN 68 6.3.4. REORGANIZED SOCIAL SUPPORTS NETWORKS 69 6.3.5. INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS AND EXTERNAL SUPPORT NETWORKS 70 6.3.6. TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND INNOVATIVE FARMING RESPONSES 70 6.3.7. APPRISING COPING AND ADAPTATION 71

6.4. LOCAL RISK GOVERNANCE AND COPING RESPONSE 71 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCUSION 73-75

7.1. PROGRAMME RECOMMENDATIONS 73 7.2. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 74

ANNEX 76-77

GENERAL GLOSSARY 76 GLOSSARY OF LOCAL TERM 77

BIBLIOGRAPHY 78


ix

LLIISSTT OOFF AACCRROONNYYMMSS

GENERAL

AEZ Agro-ecological Zone CBO Community-Based Organization CRA Community Risk Assessment CSSI Coping Strategies Selected for Investigation and Case Study FLD Flood FFL Flash Flood GD Group Discussion GDP Gross Domestic Production HHs Households KII Key Informant Interview MDG Millennium Development Goal MPO Master Plan Organization NAP National Agriculture Policy NAPA National Adaptation Programme of Action NGO Non-Government Organization NGOV Number of NGOs Being Visited PLW Participatory Learning Workshop PPF Production Possibility Frontier PRA Participatory Rapid/ Rural Appraisal PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PSU Primary Sampling Units RBE River Bank Erosion R&D Research and Development SSI Semi Structured Interview SLR Secondary Literature Reviewed UDMC Union Disaster Management Committee ORGANIZATIONS

BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BMD Bangladesh Meteorological Department BRRI Bangladesh Rice Research Institute CDMP Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme FFWC Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre GBD Government of Bangladesh MoA Ministry of Agriculture UNDP United Nations Development Programme

1 ((FFIINNAALL RREEPPOORRTT BBYY DDEEVV FFRROONNTT)) –– TTRRAADDIITTIIOONNAALL CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

CCHHAAPPTTEERR OONNEE IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN

11..11 IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN

The study investigates the north-western rural people survive in the disasters with their indigenous knowledge tradition harvested from their enduring experience of coping with floods, which may perhaps be considered as the basic strength of the disaster management in Bangladesh. People survive, most of the time without any intervention from outside, under different critical fragile conditions. People have been coping with multifarious adversities and various types of pressures on their livelihoods for hundreds of years. In their everyday life struggle, the indigenous knowledge and coping strategies sustain to be the essence of survival. But in recent days, however, successive years of crop failures and significant erosion of livelihood support systems due to over exposure of natural hazards have severe effects on the perform-ance of livelihood enterprises and coping ability.

The Bangladesh economy is highly dependent on agriculture and, at large, a major constraint for the sustainable and stable growth of food production in Bangladesh is the fact that natural calamities of different types have made the farmers vulnerable to crop failures and food scarcities accelerating poverty intensification in the country. The high vulnerability to flood, cyclone, tornados, drought, salinity, fire, earthquake, landslides, river bank erosion and some other hazards have evolved a unique condition of existence in Bangladesh, especially in the North-western regions. This region has additional risk features particularly because the region is bounded by hilly areas of India and become seasonally prone to flash flood from the upstream of Indian rivers causing flash floods. In recent years abnormal floods have increased significantly, causing serious damage to lives and property which is most exposed to Northwest Bangladesh.

Given this backdrop, the ability to respond, cope, adapt or recover from the overexposure of natural hazards have emerged as the central question of survival – the core challenge for people in everyday life especially in the Northwest regions of Bangladesh. People of this country have a long history of coping with such critical fragile conditions, which by virtue is the basic strength of the disaster management of Bangla-desh. This good community practices need to be accounted in a scientific manner for the benefit of larger community through effective dissemination. The focus of the study is on how traditional coping mechanisms of the rural poor in Northwest Bangladesh function in response to eternal vulnerabilities to the livelihood systems brought about by Natural Hazards.

The scope of the study empirically explore, in some details, the strategies they employ over time as they strive to cope and eventually adopted by poor communities as disasters impact on their highly complex livelihood systems. This will also provide insights into the impacts of long-term trends of repeated hazards exposure on the resilience and traditional coping strategies of the local communities resulting increased vulnerabilities for the poor people. The research also however, shed light on assessing the response mechanisms of the communities utilizing traditional knowledge and skills to counteract the aftermath of recurrent floods.


11..22.. TTHHEE SSIITTUUAATTIIOONN AANNDD CCOONNTTEEXXTT:: PPLLAACCEE AANNDD PPEEOOPPLLEE

11..22..11.. EECCOOLLOOGGIICCAALL FFEEAATTUURREESS OOFF NNOORRTTHHWWEESSTT BBAANNGGLLAADDEESSHH

The northwest Bangladesh is generally very low-lying, and crisscrossed by river systems. This area is historically more neglected and poor. Environmentally, it’s also very vulnerable to frequent natural disasters. People face catastrophe like storms during summer, flash flood, floods and river-bank erosion in the rainy season, drought in summer, spring and cold wave in winter.

11..22..11..11.. TTOOPPOOGGRRAAPPHHYY

As great Brahmaputra river system enters from Kurigram district and Tista River enters Lalmonirhat, the level of the land is largely a result of fluvial action. In the physiographic sub-regions and units Kurigram is in Bharmapurta-Jamuna Floodplain (X) unit which contains Dairas and Chars (Xb). Land level is classified as partly intermediate and shallowly flooded land (3) and partly mixed medium and deeply flooded land (5). This area contains mainly grey floodplain soils and noncalcareous brown floodplain soils with some portion of nonsaline soils in char areas. On the other hand, Lalmonirhat district is in the tista floodplain unit. The relief is that of medium level ridges and shallow basins. Most of the land is shallowly flooded. There is a slight depression along the Ghaghot river, where flooding is of medium depth. The big river courses of the Tista, the Dharla and the Dudkumar cut through the plain. The active floodplain of these rivers, with their sandbanks and diaras, is usually less than six kilometers wide (Rashid. 2005).

11..22..11..22.. TTHHEE CCLLIIMMAATTEE

Pleasant climate will be seen all over the year except some heavy rain during the rainy season (June-September) in this district. Although there are some heavy rainfall during the rainy season but water is usually and quickly flowing to the middle to southern part of Bangladesh as this area is quite higher (appox. 13 meter) from sea level. Summer is embedded with rainy season and quite hot (mostly 30-35o C). As soon as the rainy season is over, winter comes. In winter (October - February) minimum temperature is not less than 5o C and some days are foggy and sun cannot be seen until mid-day during those days. From March weather becomes warm and spring comes followed by Autumn and our traditional major rice Harvesting season until May. During this period sky will be mostly clear with few floating white clouds and no rains. Winter is also rain free in this district (Wikipedia, 2008).

11..22..11..33.. RRIIVVEERR SSYYSSTTEEMMSS AANNDD WWEETTLLAANNDDSS

The major river is Brahmaputra and its tributaries. The other rivers are Dharla, and Tista. The tributaries are Dudhkumar, Phulkumar, Gangadhar, Jinjiram Sonaburi, Gangadhar, Halhali and Jalchira. etc.

The rivers serve as the main source of water for irrigation and as the principal arteries for commercial transportation. The rivers also provide sweet-water fish, an important source of livelihood for many fishers in the area. On the other hand, these rivers are also the sources of miseries of the people by causing enormous hardship and destruction of the area through riverbank erosion and floods.

Besides these extensive river networks, there are some water bodies which used as reservoir of water during dry seasons– the sources of irrigation– and also provide sweet-water fish.


11..22..11..44.. AAGGRRIICCUULLTTUURREE AANNDD EECCOONNOOMMYY

From the ancient time northwest Bangladesh is a land of agriculture. Several agricultural products are the major driving power of the economy of this district such as rice, jute (called the golden fiber of Bangladesh), wheat, tobacco, potato etc.

During winter season, when ground water level is usually lower than rainy season, peoples use irrigation system to cultivate several high yielding varies of rice to keep the economy strong of this district. Several cold storage are also adding value to the economy of this district by preserving agricultural products

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurigram�

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jute�


especially potato during the hot summer season.

The high intensity of cropping (IC) along the Brahmaputra, Tista, Dharla and Dudkumar river, such as in Chilmari, Ulipur and Kurigram etc. thanas, does not reflect the flood and erosion hazard in these areas. The soils are in favor of agriculture, and the high rainfall enables multiple cropping over most of the area, but some damage due to major floods is also common. Much of this flood-prone area has been classed as poor or very poor agricultural land precisely because of this hazard. The average production of the study area’s high IC belt is considerably reduced by floods, and related intensity of sand deposition (Rashid. 2005).

11..22..22.. PPRROOFFIILLIINNGG DDIISSAASSTTEERRSS IINN KKUURRIIGGRRAAMM AANNDD LLAALLMMOONNIIRRHHAATT

Kurigram and Lalmonirhat, are the most flood-affected districts in the country due to the factors like geographical positioning, river system, deltaic formation history and fluvial action. The area is exposed to natural hazards, such as, floods, flash floods, river erosion, droughts, cold waves etc. The episode of these natural events are often coupled and multiplied with the high base vulnerabilities of the individuals, households and communities results in disasters that further drive the area towards greater environmental degradation, hunger, poverty and social deprivation.

The area is highly susceptible to increase of the flood frequency due to the climate change impacts, the river bank erosion, and embankment construction and water withdrawal in the upper stream. The livelihood base of the people significantly suffers erosion resulting from recurrent and exposure of diverse natural hazards.

11..22..33.. FFLLOOOODD AANNDD FFLLAASSHH FFLLOOOODD IINN KKUURRIIGGRRAAMM AANNDD LLAALLMMOONNIIRRHHAATT

The monsoon floods and flash flood du to the location are the most common form of flood in the Kurigram and Lalmonirhat district. Rainfall in the upstream countries, river siltation, construction of barrages and deforestation in the upper reaches of the rivers are some reasons which accelerated not only flood intensity and frequency but also causing deposition of loads in the river beds.

Floods are annual phenomena with the most severe occurring during the months of July and August. The country is affected by 20% up to 60% Regular river-floods affect 20% of the country increasing up to 68% in extreme years. About 68% of the country is susceptible to flood, while 25 to 30% of the area is inundated during normal flood (MoFDM, 2007).

11..22..44.. FFEEAATTUURREESS OOFF VVUULLNNEERRAABBIILLIITTIIEESS AANNDD RRIISSKKSS

Each year the floods come with greater force and people of the area are very poor and highly vulnerable to these annual floods. Flood is the most severe hazard compare to other existing hazards regarding to serious damage and frequency. Flood affects every components of livelihood such as natural resources, physical resources, social resources, economic or financial resources and human resources. River bank erosion is also experienced multiple times in every year. It caused massive loss of land, settlements, roads and embankments. During recent years, the intensity of flooding and the accompanying river erosion have increased, rendering the numerous coping mechanisms people have developed over the past decades no longer sufficient.

Since Kurigram and Lalmonirhat is the first entry point of floodwaters in Bangladesh from further upstream, the people of this district are the ones who are first affected by annual flooding. While flood is a common feature of this area, severe river erosion resulting from acute deforestation and regular flooding, increases the ultra people in this district. The area is the most flood-affected and river erosive areas on a year-to-year


basis. The fact that these people are not prepared to recover from disasters quickly makes these communi-ties even more vulnerable. During floods women are vulnerable due to their household responsibilities, illness, insecurity of life and property, education of children, lack of privacy etc.

11..33.. SSCCOOPPIINNGG AANNDD FFRRAAMMIINNGG TTHHEE CCOONNCCEEPPTTSS

This section presents the main concepts involved in analyzing the complex situation and the approach used to understand the interactions involved in real-life situations of the households. The basic concepts and their respective interrelations are being mapped out in this part to understand and explain the coping response and associated decision making environment.

11..33..11.. TTHHEE FFRROONNTTLLIINNEE PPEEOOPPLLEE:: RRIISSKK PPEERRCCEEPPTTIIOONN AANNDD CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

The perception of risk is a social process. – Douglas and Wildavsky 1982

Perceptions guide people’s coping responses. The coping responses of individuals and their societies to the hazards that confront them depend on the subjectively perceived risk situations defined by community people. It is not independent of their minds and cultures. There is no such thing as ‘real risk’ or ‘objective risk’. Risk does not exist ‘out there’, and people do not see risk as an objective property of an event or activity to be measured in terms of probability and magnitude of hazards. They do not generate coping response rationally by allocating their resources to reduce the greatest risks first, either. Context matters. So does procedure of decision making independent of outcome.

The categorizations of hazard, disaster, vulnerability or capacity in terms of social, economic and environ-mental criteria are, so to speak, academic or scientific in essence but become meaningless to the commu-nity people on the ground as their everyday life is rather survived than lived. People do not use the concept of vulnerability to describe their worsening situation, instead they live under stress, confront difficulties, and make decisions to respond to reduce and control risks. People always confront with networks of interacting problems which they try to perceive in terms of causes and effects. Again, the community people do not have one overarching so-called scientific model for explaining the causes and effects for generating response, instead they have multitudinous perceptions of causations and of aetiologies and hence leading towards the making of wide varieties of responses.

People survive in the face of environmental hazard because they attempt to cope, adapt and adjust by learning derived from their experience. The self protective responses vary tremendously, by hazard and society, but are universally found (Kates, 1978). People react to minimize losses, and also adopt some preventive measures prior to the hazard events. People respond in terms of what they believe to be the case, rather than what scientists think what would happen. Their understandings of likelihood, severity and aftermath of hazards and their perceived capacities to respond are determinant factors for selecting coping strategies and responding differently to the perceived situations. The nature of coping strategies are primarily rooted in their previous personal experience within a broader spectrum of complex interactions of history, politics, socio-economic condition, institutional dynamics and so on. Therefore, local responses are conditioned and mediated by their respective perceptions of risk situations.

The perception of risk is a social process (Douglas and Wildavsky 1982). Individuals including farmer and non-farmer, male and female, rich and poor, young and old, as well as all other categories see the hazards of the everyday life through different lenses, and from different positions and perspectives. Risk perceptions are socially framed, culturally constructed, very complex and are also affected by many other factors. What


people perceive as undesirable and the way people react to a hazardous environment are, to a large extent, based on respective values and preferences. The way that such risks are perceived and responded to is based on educational background, gender, age, historical and personal experience, attitudes and behaviours derived from peers, friends, family and so on. The reasons behind diversity in response might be due to differences in what people know about hazardous events, how they perceive them, and the concepts they use to classify their experiences and make decisions accordingly.

Hence, we have to listen to what the rural people say about their livelihoods and admit the importance of local understandings. The realities on the ground are complicated, highly interrelated, interwoven, and diverse in the ways where individuals and societies react to hazards. Livelihood strategies poses the central challenges in their striving lives, which become meaningful in their everyday struggles for existence, and regardless of whether they are being defined as preparedness, mitigation or response. We need to capture visions and perspectives of multiple actors in the community in relation to the risk perceptions, food security, sources and types of risks, hazards, perceptions of different types and sources of risks, percep-tions of consequences, and the options available to them to overcome the consequences of the course of events under varying scenarios and contexts.

11..33..22.. IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS KKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEE AANNDD CCOOPPIINNGG RREESSPPOONNSSEE

Knowledge has become the key economic resource and the dominant – perhaps even the only – source of competitive advantage.

– Peter Drucker, 1995

People’s preferences for coping response or risk management are derived from various combinations of perceived risk-benefit trade-offs based on their knowledge and experience. Social actions to cope with risk are not confined to the simple goal of risk minimisation but include other purposes such as equity, fairness, flexibility, or resilience (Short, 1984; Nowotny and Eisikovic, 1990 cited in Krimsky and Golding, 1992). The practice of risk minimization, therefore, implies a clear distinction between knowledge traditions of scientists or experts and lay community people.

Expert knowledge and public/ indigenous knowledge are conditional - each reflects the underlying social relations and implicit assumptions of the various actors. What people perceive as an unacceptable situation or undesirable effect depends on their values, preferences and knowledge. The interactions between human activities and consequences are more complex and unique than the average probabilities/ magni-


tudes used in technical risk analyses are able to capture (Renn, 1992). It is, therefore, necessary to account for both scientific and indigenous systems of knowledge to understand the contexts of people’s coping responses.

The indigenous knowledge of people represents experience gained over thousands of years of direct human contact with the encompassing environment. The local people have gradually developed enormous volumes of knowledge about their local environments over the centuries by directly interacting and experi-encing with the environment, for instance, knowledge about the soil, climate, water, forest, wildlife, minerals etc. in the locality. This is the endowed wisdom of people which implies a refined ecological awareness of the nonlinear nature of our environment shaping and organizing the livelihood strategies of people (figure 1.1).

The indigenous knowledge is accumulated through cumulative and collective experience, while it is checked, validated, and revised daily and seasonally through the annual cycle of activities performed by local people. This knowledge about the environment is gained through ongoing intimate contact with the resource. It implies intuitive mode of thinking emphasising emotional involvement and is rooted in a social context that sees the world in terms of social and spiritual relations between all life-forms. Relations are based on reciprocity and obligations toward both community members and other life-forms and communal resource-management institutions are based on shared knowledge and meaning as represented in the figure 1.1.

Knowledge of how vulnerable people respond to a threat is essential. Outside interventions can then be built on these strategies. Natural hazards are not new and people have been living in hazard-prone areas for centuries – in some cases for thousands of years. They have, inevitably, devised their own methods for protecting themselves and their livelihoods. These methods are based on their own skills and resources, as well as their experiences. Their knowledge systems, skills and technologies are usually referred to under the heading of ‘indigenous knowledge’.

The application of indigenous knowledge in the face of hazards and other threats is referred to as a ‘coping strategy’ (also sometimes known as an ‘adjustment’ mechanism or strategy, and in some circumstances as a ‘survival’ strategy). The choice of skills and resources to be applied varies according to the nature of the hazard threat, the capacities available to deal with it, and to a variety of community and individual priorities that can change during the course of a disaster.

Indigenous knowledge is wide-ranging. It includes technical expertise in seed selection and house-building, knowing where to find certain wild foods, economic knowledge of where to buy or sell essential items or find paid work, and knowledge of whom to call upon for assistance. People’s resources also include labour, land, tools, seeds, food stocks, animals, cash, jewellery and other items of value. These can be used, bought, sold, or requested by calling upon obligations from family, kin, friends or neighbours, according to circumstances.

The indigenous knowledge related to coping response to natural disasters has significance connections to planning, disaster reduction and management in Bangladesh. Indigenous knowledge of coping with disasters is crucial for the planning process to decide how the future should be different from the present, what changes are necessary and how these changes should be brought about (Lee and Mills 1983). The present study would provide policy makers with indigenous knowledge related to coping strategies and its variance by hazard types and socioeconomic group, the occurrence of diverged strategies in different

The coping strategies are diverse and dynamic in nature depending upon contextual factors like region, community, social class, ethnic

identity, household composition, gender, age and season as well as the likelihoods severity

and duration of the potential hazard.


ecological settings, the impediments of using existing facilities (such as costs, distance, staffing, education, hazard causation beliefs, local power and etc.), perceived quality and appropriateness of services rendered and the impact of public policy actions.

11..33..33.. LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD RREESSOOUURRCCEESS AANNDD AABBIILLIITTYY TTOO CCOOPPEE

Poor people cope, while rich people manage. – Anonymous

Coping implies much less control over a situation than to what has usually been denoted by the term ‘to manage’. Coping strategies are closely related to resources and assets, and thus the ability to generate coping responses is being subjected to the availability of livelihood resources that individuals and house-holds have access to and control over.

Livelihood describes the means of living or sustenance. An economic definition of livelihood could be the organization of productive resources of households to maximize their standard of living. In other words, the concept of livelihood includes assets and capabilities along with activities or strategies in the productive resources as Chambers and Conway said, “Livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets, and activities for a means of living” (1992: 7). By capabilities, they mean something akin to Sen's notion of a set of alterna-tive beings and doings that a person can achieve with his/her economic, social, and personal characteris-tics (Dreze and Sen 1989; Sen, 1993; 1997). Assets comprise several components, some of which represent the economic categories of capital, and others – claims and access to resources. Generally, five categories of assets are identified as contributing to livelihoods. They are natural assets, physical assets, human assets, financial assets, and social assets (Scooner, 1998; Bebbington et al., 1997; Bebbington, 1999; Carney, 1998; Serageldin and Steer, 1994).

Interactions among people in markets, government and civil society provide access to resources or/and development of assets into commodity bundles (Sen, 1981; Evans, 1996; Bebbington, 1999). Institutions play a crucial role in livelihood dynamics. Institutions, market and assets interplay in livelihood dynamics. Access to natural assets like land, financial assets, social organizations etc. is defined by rules and social norms (institutions); value of the flow of benefits from productive assets is determined by the market forces. By impacting on transaction cost, institutions can make markets efficient or inefficient. Institutions also affect livelihoods directly. State policies on social security directly affect livelihood outcomes. Conversely, changes in livelihoods might make certain institutions redundant and certain others necessary. An under-standing of these and other inter-relationships among assets, institutions, markets and livelihoods becomes important in unravelling the different dimensions of stable livelihoods (figure 1.1).

The ability to pursue different livelihood strategies is dependent on the basis of material and social, tangible and intangible assets that people have in their possession. These may be made up of personal capabilities, tangible assets (e.g. material resources) and intangible assets (e.g. rights and access) (Chambers and Conway 1992: 10). At any scale, livelihoods are composed in complex ways, with multiple and dynamic portfolios of different activities, often improvised as part of an on-going ‘performance’ (Richards 1989). Creating livelihoods, therefore, entails combination of resource endowments that they have access to and control over. Such accessibility to resources has significant bearing upon people’s capacity for self protection and to cope with disastrous situations.

This research is an empirical unfolding of this framework. It may be noted that livelihood is conditioned by extra local factors. Therefore, understanding the micro-macro linkages is important to obtain a comprehen-sive grip on the factors and processes conditioning livelihood and coping strategies.


11..33..44.. PPRROOAACCTTIIVVEE AANNDD RREEAACCTTIIVVEE CCOOPPIINNGG

What is the main objective of coping as people attempt or pursue? The ultimate goal of the household is to smooth consumption. Coping strategies are being pursued by community people as means not only to ensure future income generating capacity (i.e. livelihood) but also to stabilize subsistence levels of food consumption under conditions and foot prints of prior and ongoing disaster impacts. Natural disasters, therefore, affect the coping behavior of the individual, household and community at different phases including before, during and after the exposure to any potential hazards.

People, in their efforts to cope, can adopt one or more strategies at the same time for managing variability in both space and time. But they do calculate the marginal benefits and costs of adopting different strategies. People, however, do not live by maximizing the output efficiency (physical quantity). Their goal is not to maximize gross margin or net income, either. Rather, they try to minimize risk to an acceptable level through risk-spreading measures while securing subsistence requirements. Coping responses to risks and uncertainty necessarily involve continuous and creative coping practices in liveli-hood strategies.

People adopt coping strategies in response to both perceived risks environment as well as shocks to their livelihoods. They have to deal with the expenses related to their expectation (ex ante costs) and occurrence (ex post costs) of such events. The traditional coping strategies may perhaps be divided into proactive risk coping practices and reactive loss minimizing coping mechanisms (Walker and Jodha 1986).

11..33..44.. 11.. EEXX--AANNTTEE OORR PPRROOAACCTTIIVVEE RRIISSKK CCOOPPIINNGG

The literature on traditional risk analysis is quite diverse. Von Neuman and Morgenstern (1947) have developed the expected utility approach. Markowitz (1959) and Tobin (1958) developed portfolio theory. Markowitz (1959), Baumol (1963), Hanoch and Levy (1969), and Hadar and Rusell (1969) were pioneers in developing various risk efficiency criteria. Arrow and Pratt (1964) provided for interpersonal comparisons of risk aversion and contributed importantly to empirical analysis of risk attitudes. Anderson, Dillon and Hardakar (1977) have further developed agricultural decision analysis under risk.

Outcome of livelihood strategies could be viewed in terms of income received or consumption achieved by households (Ellis, 2000). However, it could be adversely affected by the presence of livelihood risks. Livelihood risk is defined as the likelihood of occurrence of (external) shocks and stresses including their severity. As and when livelihood faces risks households may develop strategies to overcome them. Such pattern of coping with risk, involves a succession of responses to increasingly severe conditions (Jodha, 1975; Cutler and Stephenson, 1984; Shipton, 1990 cited in Webb and von Braun, 1994).

The frontier people have indigenous ways of managing disasters in everyday life apart from having any single scientific model of risk manage-ment. Peoples’ risk response involves identifying

Livelihoods also imply a complex web of risk diversification, social networks and coping strategies.

– WFP 1998


the range of coping options for treating the risk, evaluating those options, and selecting coping response for implementation. For our general conceptual understanding of people’s coping strategies we can classify1

Risk Avoidance: People cope with risk through avoiding or refusing to undertake an activity where the risk seems too costly. They avoid risks by not proceeding with an activity likely to generate risk for them.

them in terms of the purposes and objectives of coping with risks by the options of avoidance, transfer, or reduction of likelihood or consequence (see figure 1.2.).

Risk Reduction: The coping may aim at risk reduction or prevention (loss control) through using various strategies or methods to reduce the possibility of occurring loss. Diversification is the most common example of indigenous risk reduction measure found in rural Bangladesh. Actions to reduce or control likelihood can include: inspection and process control, investment and portfolio management, preventative maintenance, technical innovation and etc. While procedures to reduce or control consequences can include: contingency planning, contractual arrangements, portfolio planning, engineering and structural barriers (plinth raising), separation or relocation of activities, building social networks and relations, and so on.

Risk Transfer: People also transfer risk by bearing or sharing some part of the risk with other people, which may include sharecropping practices. The transfer of a risk to other stakeholders, in whole or in part, means that the stakeholder transferring the risk has acquired a new risk, since to whom the risk has been transferred, may not manage the risk effectively.

Risk Retention: This option is selected when people perceive and expect a low degree of loss without reference to probability. Instead of generating coping responses, people adopt a contingency planning.

11..33..44..22.. EEXX--PPOOSSTT OORR RREEAACCTTIIVVEE LLOOSSSS MMIINNIIMMIIZZIINNGG CCOOPPIINNGG

Loss minimizing reactive coping strategies includes farmers’ responses to lower-than-expected crop production caused by natural hazards. Reductions in crop production can be compensated through various means. Some are changes in diet, off-farm and non-farm income, sales of assets including productive assets, and seasonal migration. But, it is worth mentioning that the loss management activities also require good health, good physical condition, and energy sufficient for work, and above all an access and entitle-ment.

The lack of access to formal financial and insurance markets makes households develop different schemes to deal with shocks – both idiosyncratic and systemic. This lack of access has a negative influence on the efficiency of the household (Ray and Bhadra, 1993; Fletschener and Zepeda, 2002; Chavas, Petrie and Roth, 2005).

11..44.. PPRROOFFIILLIINNGG TTHHEE RREESSEEAARRCCHH IISSSSUUEESS

11..44..11.. PPRROOBBLLEEMM SSTTAATTEEMMEENNTT

Bangladesh sustains significant progresses as a developing economy over the years but such escalating growth, so to speak, is being recurrently intercepted by multitudinous natural and socioeconomic proc-esses. Owing to the other concomitant factors like the deltaic formation history and low-line coastal morphology has turned Bangladesh into the most disaster prone region on earth and is highly susceptible to climate change impacts. The situation becomes increasingly worse due to the multiplying effects of high 1 This classification is done to understand the different coping behavior of people but not necessarily mutually exclusive, or appropriate in all circumstances.


social vulnerabilities. Inadequate governance, weak institutions, relative deprivation, exploitation and denial of fundamental human rights including highly polarized access to resources through commercial and industrial entities and vested interest groups are defining characteristic of everyday existence in Bangla-desh like many other post colonial developing countries. Failure to regulate these violations is also related to poor governance that is also responsible for failure to ensure access of poor communities to common resources (see Figure 1.4). Additionally, a doubling of Bangladesh total population in the last 30 years developed a sharp imbalance in the man-resource (particularly land and water).

The people affected by hazards respond in different ways within the same locality and across localities. So, from both a practical and academic point of view we need to know why some populations are more vulnerable than others as there remains a serious gap in our understanding about how individuals cope with stress under different contexts. Attempts to increase sustainable productivity in rural economy of Bangla-desh, however, need to be based on a sound knowledge of coping strategies, responses to risks and decision making behaviour of the rural farm families or households.

Reducing the threat of hazards and creating enabling conditions for rural economic growth requires thorough understanding of perceptions, traditional principles and coping strategies pursued by the commu-nity people under different local conditions and scenarios. Among these multifarious attempts to cope with and survive under adversities, the success stories, otherwise spoken, the good community practices need to be accounted in a scientific manner for the benefit of larger community through effective dissemination. The focus of this research remains on how traditional coping mechanisms of the rural poor in Bangladesh function in response to eternal vulnerabilities to the livelihood systems brought about by Natural Hazards.

11..44..22.. PPUURRPPOOSSEE AANNDD OOBBJJEECCTTIIVVEESS

The proposed study would serve the purpose of gaining an in-depth understanding regarding the traditional coping strategies of the people living in riverside areas of Northwest Bangladesh which are recurrently afflicted by floods, flash floods and river bank erosion. The objectives of the study is to examine in detail the coping strategies of the vulnerable communities in Northwest Bangladesh to natural hazards with significant emphasis on flood and to capture the non-erosive coping strategies as potential strengths and essential components of evolving disaster resilient communities in Northwest Bangladesh. In other word, the


purpose of the study is to capture the indigenous knowledge and coping strategies they employ over time as they strive to cope with disaster situation. The specific study objectives are:

1. Developing inventory of onshore coping strategies having potentials for being translated into adap-tive capacity among rural communities in Northwest Bangladesh with significant reference to floods.

2. Capture the indigenous/traditional knowledge of early warnings and practices associated with for-estalling imminent disaster events among the local communities living in flood prone areas.

3. Assessing the capacities vis-à-vis vulnerabilities, their risk perceptions and associated prepared-ness responses of the local communities to cope with pre, during and post-flood situations in the research sites.

4. Identify and recommend potential intervention (both for government and NGOs) areas to enhance community resilience or capacities in counteracting disaster situation caused by recurrent [flash]floods through strengthening and replicating existing coping strategies to be found in North-west Bangladesh.

11..44..44.. OOUUTTLLIINNEE OOFF TTHHEE RREEPPOORRTT

In the proceeding discussion, the second chapter delineates the methodological grounding of this research and based on this frame of reference that we developed corresponding strategies, tools and techniques to capture the field dynamics. The subject matter of this chapter is to analyze the complementarities between the spread and coverage of the research tasks, and the limitations of time and resources for this research. We, however, resolved this challenge by resorting to qualitative methods to grasp the situations, events, and men-systems interactions.

Study areas demographic, geographic and hazard information are discussed in the third chapter. The chapter four has aim at exploring the traditional perception and assessment of risk situation, early warning, and vulnerabilities of the study area. Safety net programmes by different non-government development agencies and government interventions are also discussed. In the chapter five discussions includes people’s coping response to cope with the regular flood, flash flood and river erosion, the people attempt to address risk problems. Finally, we attempts to scale up some recommendations for increasing resilience of communities to disasters with reference to community based disaster management policies and pro-grammes.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR TTWWOO MMEETTHHOODDOOLLOOGGYY

This chapter explores the different tools, techniques and analytical approaches that investigate the traditional coping strategies and vulnerability of different groups (PWDs, male, female, landless, land owner, occupational minority groups, religious minority groups, ethnic groups etc) by most frequent hazards of the areas (flood, river bank erosion and flash flood). This research in largely founded upon qualitative data collection methods, where most of the source selection is done deliberately according to specified characteristics rather than randomly from the population, as a whole. An attempt is made in this research to capture community people’s attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, perceptions and response to risks situations and strategies for loss minimization have been accomplished through encouraging [inter]active participation.

22..11.. TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY DDEESSIIGGNN

This study has been systematically conducted that comprises of activities categorized under several steps as shown in the figure 2.1 in details. The major steps are as follows:

□ Step One: Problem Framing □ Step Two: Profiling Scope and Context Modelling □ Step Three: Data Analysis and Screening □ Step Four: Appraisal and Assessment of Coping □ Step Five: Draft Report □ Step Six: Final Report

The first four steps are discussed here to provide a clear overview about the validity, reliability and representativeness of the collected data, and the corresponding analytical processes being followed.

22..11..11.. RREESSEEAARRCCHH TTEEAAMM

The research is being carried out by a core team which travelled to two target districts. This core team consists of the principal investigator, co-principal investigator and four associates (2 male, 2 female) who have diverse methodo-logical and epistemological heritage, were recruited and trained to conduct fieldwork


at different research sites. The research associates received extensive training for two days. At each research site, two research assistants conducted the research activities being supervised by one or two members of the core team.

The local government members, Upazila administration and local NGO personnel were involved to facilitate the introduction of the team within the community and they also contributed to a better understanding of the local environment. In the study areas, we took help from volunteer local guides to facilitate the communica-tion between the local respondents and the team.

22..22.. SSTTEEPP OONNEE:: PPRROOBBLLEEMM FFRRAAMMIINNGG:: PPLLAANNNNIINNGG AANNDD CCOONNCCEEPPTTUUAALL DDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTT

22..22..11.. RREEVVIIEEWW OOFF SSEECCOONNDDAARRYY IINNFFOORRMMAATTIIOONN

In order to get insight into the problem field, pre-existing knowledge base in the relevant fields of indigenous knowledge and disasters as well as understanding of the selected districts of this study, an attempt was made to review the available secondary sources of information. A substantial number of the secondary materials, literatures and information, collected from visiting different organizations and browsing internet resources, were appraised to conceptualize and problematize the research issues, concepts and concerns. These included an assessment of the study areas by natural or physical, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The information areas and types we have reviewed in this research are summarized in the following:

□ The available reports of Community Risk Assessment (CRA) of CDMP on the relevant Upazilas of the selected districts.

□ Demographic and population information (for example, age, sex, ethnicity, disability, occupational minority, religious minority etc).

□ Broad range of household social and economic issues in study areas (for example, climate data, geographic location, water source, sanitation, sources of income, consumption patterns, poverty levels, use of services).

□ Livelihood support system and associated risk factors from a temporal perspective of the research locales. Information on the production constraints and opportunities was also gathered from governmen-tal and non-governmental sources.

□ Health and disability status, well-being, economic status, living environment, work, quality of life, life satisfaction, community and social supports.

□ Social policy issues (for example, inequalities, poverty, social capital, access to services (social and health). Possible causes and consequences of social, economic, political, environmental change.

22..22..22.. DDEEVVEELLOOPPIINNGG TTOOOOLLSS AANNDD TTEECCHHNNIIQQUUEESS

The research made use of both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The quantitative part is anchored in survey method following sampling techniques. However, the study is largely founded upon and guided by qualitative research methods though the findings are supported by quantitative data as and where needed. All the required tools and techniques were developed based on analyzing the secondary information collected at the earlier stage of the research related to livelihood assets, traditional coping mechanisms and flood, flash flood as well as river bank erosion.

The qualitative methods were followed for the purpose of validation and reliability of the field data collection. Therefore, data collection tools in the form of checklists were developed to engage different techniques, i.e. Key Informant Interview (hereafter KII), Participatory Learning Workshop (hereafter PLW), Group Discus-sion (hereafter GD), Semi Structured Interview (hereafter SSI) and Ethnographic interview (hereafter EI).


22..22..22..11.. PPRREE--TTEESSTTIINNGG AANNDD FFIINNAALLIIZZIINNGG

The checklists thus developed as data collection tools have been pre-tested in one field site of Hatibandha Upazila under Lalmonirhat. One village of Hatibandha of Lalmonirhat had been selected for pre-testing. The research team conducted group discussion, KIIs and in-depth interviews to receive the response of the purposively selected respondent representing different stakeholders as well as crosscutting categories including women, PWDs, occupational minority groups, religious minority groups and the like. Besides incorporating the experience of one day fieldwork, the tools and selected techniques developed for this research were eventually finalized.

22..33.. SSTTEEPP TTWWOO:: PPRROOFFIILLIINNGG SSCCOOPPEE AANNDD CCOONNTTEEXXTT MMOODDEELLLLIINNGG

22..33..11.. SSIITTEESS SSEELLEECCTTIIOONN

In order to document types and differences in traditional coping strategies and capacities (within and between regions, different age and sex groups, occupational groups, minority groups, different persons with disabilities and ethnic groups), the present research is founded upon extensive fieldwork conducted in the two North-western flood prone districts of Bangladesh to collect data from the primary, secondary and tertiary stakeholders. The selection of the districts was based on the proneness to high frequency and large scale flood impacts. The study was conducted in unions distributed over these two selected districts. In each district, unions and villages therein were selected according to a set of indicators which would reflect the diversity in different contexts. However, the unions and villages therein were selected according to a predefined set of indicators:

□ Prevalence of the main hazards; □ Frequency of flood, flash flood and river bank erosion exposure; □ Minority, sex, occupation, disabilities and ethnicity of the population; □ Socio-economic indicators– a significant number of households suffering rice insufficiency; □ Existence of RDRS; and □ History of external assistance.

Based on the criterion set forth above, we have selected two districts: (1) Kurigram District- Rowmari, Bondobear and Jadurchar unions of Rowmari Upazila; (2) Lalmonirhat District- Patikamari, Dawabari Unions of Hatibandha Upazila, Mahishkhocha union of Aditmari Upazila.

The fieldwork for primary data collection was carried out over a period of 02 weeks in the month of Decem-ber 2008.

22..33..22.. SSAAMMPPLLIINNGG TTEECCHHNNIIQQUUEESS

22..33..22..11.. MMUULLTTIISSTTAAGGEE CCLLUUSSTTEERR SSAAMMPPLLIINNGG

The research made use of Multistage Cluster Sampling – a sampling design in which a sampling unit consists of a group or ‘cluster’ of elements (or observation units) – in order to select the respondent for this investigation. The target population were widely distributed geographically and occurred in natural and social clusters such as disability, sex, occupation, occupational minority and religious minority, beneficiaries of RDRS and relations types.

Based on the list of Unions, Upazilas of the selected districts, the target population was divided into non-overlapping groups of clusters i.e. primary sampling units (Union and Upazila) and secondary sampling units (occupational groups, minority groups, sex groups, PWDs groups, ethnic or indigenous groups,


beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries). The sample of clusters (disable, female headed household, land owner, landless, occupational minority groups, religious minority groups, ethnic groups, beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries) was selected purposively.

22..33..22..22.. SSTTRRAATTIIFFIIEEDD RRAANNDDOOMM SSAAMMPPLLIINNGG

The population of the selected clusters were again divided into non-overlapping homogeneous groups of different strata i.e. primary sampling strata (most vulnerable categories), secondary sampling stratum (male and female), and tertiary sampling strata (different key actors like local government leaders, local admini-stration, GO, NGOs and civil society representatives). Respondents were selected randomly of observation units within all of the strata.

22..33..33.. DDAATTAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

The data collection strategies prioritized the reproduction of reality as the way it is perceived by the community people. Different PRA tools had been applied to facilitate the data collection and analysis as products of joint enterprise by both the community people as well as the research team. PRA helps involve the community people in investigations, diagramming and mapping out the constraints, preferences and priorities in the respective local contexts as well as empowers villagers by encouraging them to take the lead in investigation and analysis (Chambers, 1993). Rather than answering a stream of questions directed by the values of the researcher, the local people presented their ideas in the form they can discuss, modify and extend if they are empowered.

22..33..33..11.. AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS AATT RREESSEEAARRCCHH SSIITTEESS

Group Discussions have been conducted, at each research sites i.e. Union, with community people to explore the technical and human resources available in order to have a general understanding of the factors contributing to vulnerability and people’s capacity to deal with seasonal stress and hazards. The participants in such group discussions included cross-sectional people– representing UDMC personnel, elders, different categories of farmers including young farmers, and the most vulnerable categories e.g. women, disable people, excluded and indigenous groups– in order to stimulate discussions and develop a broad picture of traditional coping activities. Local people’s perception and attitudes towards hazards and disasters within their local environment were also unveiled in these discussions. The good community practices related to coping had been captured through understanding the disaster risks situation at the household level and corresponding coping strategies at the household and the community level. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at this level with different actors. Finally, the findings had been confirmed and validated in group discussions conducted at the Union level and this had been achieved through analyzing the different information gathered together with the community people.

22..33..44.. DDAATTAA CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN TTOOOOLLSS AANNDD TTEECCHHNNIIQQUUEESS

TTAABBLLEE 22..11:: TTHHEE SSAALLIIEENNTT FFEEAATTUURREESS OOFF TTHHEE FFIIEELLDDWWOORRKK AANNDD RREESSEEAARRCCHH AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS SSEELLEECCTTIIOONN OOFF DDIISSTTRRIICCTTSS TTOOOOLLSS,, TTEECCHHNNIIQQUUEESS && AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS CCOOVVEERRAAGGEE SSCCEENNAARRIIOO

NNAAMMEESS SSOOUURRCCEE** MMAAIINN HHAAZZAARRDD FFOOCCUUSS NNGGOOVV GGDD KKIIII UUPPAAZZIILLAA UUNNIIOONN VVIILLLLAAGGEE Kurigram RDRS Flood, Flash Flood,

River Bank Erosion 02 14 10 01 03 06

Lalmonirhat RDRS 02 09 10 02 03 05 TOTAL 04 23 20 03 06 11

ABBREVIATIONS: METHODOLOGY: [KII – Key Informant Interview; SSI – Semi-Structured Interview (including In-Depth Interview & Open Ended Discussions)]. OTHERS: [NGOV– Number of NGOs being Visited] Notes: * 2 districts were selected in consultation with RDRS based on hazard and agro-ecological diversity.


Different tools and techniques along with the respective contexts of their application are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. The number of interactions made with different actors and the number of respon-dents involved in each exercise have been dependent upon local contingencies, dynamics and context. The salient statistical features related to the use of these tools and techniques at different research sites are summarized in table 2.1.

22..33..44..11.. GGRROOUUPP DDIISSCCUUSSSSIIOONNSS AANNDD LLEEAARRNNIINNGG WWOORRKKSSHHOOPPSS

Group discussions (GDs included 6 or more participants) and participatory learning workshops (PLWs involved 12 to 20 participants) were conducted to collect as well as validate data during the fieldwork of this research. The participants were selected through multistage cluster sampling and stratified random sampling as discussed earlier. The GDs and PLWs provided the context of applying other tools for develop-ing consensus and for getting an indication of how pervasive the coping response in the local context. Identifying the potential coping strategies available at the local vicinity and collecting information regarding coping, hazard, social and vulnerability profile remained as the thematic issues of discussion. Besides, information on local patterns and processes of coping, including respective hazard responses, prices and marketing of local produce and etc. were also explored in these discussion sessions.

22..33..44..22.. SSEEMMII--SSTTRRUUCCTTUURREEDD AANNDD IINN--DDEEPPTTHH IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWWSS

Semi-structured interviews, in-depth and open-ended discussions were conducted in the study districts with selected respondents. These interviews collected qualitative data to reflect on the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and perceptions of the community people at the research sites where selection have been done purposively according to specified characteristics and contextual requirement, in most of the cases, after screening and classifying the target population through multistage cluster and stratified sampling based on gender, age and groups belonging to different socio-economic statuses, occupational minority, religious minority and ethnicity.

The semi-structured and in-depth interviews collected information on farm output, harvests, income, sources of food and income during harvest failures or hazard exposure based on past hazard experienced, seasonal changes in farming activities, livestock fodder, general socio-economic information and etc.

22..33..44..33.. KKEEYY IINNFFOORRMMAANNTT IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWWSS ((KKIIII))

Key informants were interviewed to uncover information on problems, hazards, perceptions, feelings, opinions and thoughts. Reflective, interpretative and decisional questions related to each coping response were discussed with the key informants. Key informants included Upazila and union level government and local government personnel, staff of the NGOs operating in the area and any other agencies being stationed at the local level.

22..33..44..44.. OOTTHHEERR PPRRAA TTOOOOLLSS

In addition to aforesaid strategies, various PRA tools were employed to collect data from primary sources. Some of these include hazard mapping, seasonal calendars and direct observations. The information areas explored through applying PRA tools included different activities, problems and opportunities which occur during different times of the year and which have an effect on people’s lives and farm activities, including rainfall, labor supply and demand, food availability, farm operations, crops harvested, pest and diseases, seasonal price movements, and so on. It would, however, be worth mentioning that all these tools had not been used in each field sites instead tools were selected and adapted according to the information need and type of coping strategies selected as good community practices.


22..44.. SSTTEEPP TTHHRREEEE:: AANNAALLYYSSIISS AANNDD SSCCRREEEENNIINNGG

22..44..11.. DDAATTAA PPRROOCCEESSSSIINNGG

The research design including devised strategies and tools to collect data, as outlined above, may perhaps be characterized as participatory research having largely founded upon descriptive and qualitative data. The nature of qualitative data, especially in this research, required a context specific analysis along with a less structured approach. Therefore, the recorded outcomes of this research were rather unstructured in nature, and the analysis of the collected qualitative data was not a mere simple tasks or straight-forward process. Screening, content analysis and narrative analysis were engaged as approaches to interpret the collected data and to invoke meaning of the material assembled. The recorded findings of the participatory methods, as deployed in this research, had to be categorized to generate meaning as well as to make sense of qualitative findings.

The initial screening process had organized and sorted out primary data according to its components and the topics of inquiry that allowed the research team to “examine, compare, conceptualize and categorize data2

Different models of narrative analysis

”. This was mostly done during our stay in the field or else, in some cases, immediately after the fieldwork i.e. after interviews and focus group discussions had been transcribed. Early screening was, so to speak, preferred to maximize the advantage of respective contexts to categorize data and to perceive the social reality in terms of those contextual categories. The research team explored the possible linkages and relations between different categories of data. Content analysis during screening and sorting were per-formed as mechanisms to categorize, organize and record primary qualitative data for further analysis and interpretation.

3

22..44..22.. QQUUAALLIITTYY CCOONNTTRROOLL

were engaged to analyze qualitative data in this research. We considered narrative analysis as complementary to semi-structured interviews, allowing for the uninter-rupted flow of information. Some proponents of narrative analysis see it as a truly participatory and empowering research methodology insofar as it gives respondents the venue to articulate their own viewpoints without any structure restricting their expressions on a particular subject. Notes and transcription of semi-structured interviews were analyzed to interpret the findings of an activity process concerning emergency response regarding disabilities.

The study team emphasized the need of achieving and maintaining the highest level of quality possible throughout the performance of the research. All collected, accepted and analyzed data in this resaearch had undergone specific quality control assessment. All data were critically assessed during and after collection to ensure the quality of the data. These assessments included independent performance audits, data processing audits, as well as external review of the tool and templates used to collect the data.

All data reporting had extensively been reviewed to identify all problematic and missing data points. At large, the data accepted for processing had passed through extensive screening process for quality assurance based on interpretative and diagnostic analysis on the following criteria, e.g. 1. Precision, 2. Accuracy, 3. Representativeness, 4. Completeness and 5. Comparability.

22..44..33.. MMEETTHHOODDSS OOFF DDAATTAA AANNAALLYYSSIISS

2 Strauss and Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques, p. 61 3 Four models of narrative analysis can be distinguished: thematic analysis (emphasis on what is said compared to how it is said), structural analysis (emphasis on the way a story is told), interactional analysis (emphasis on the dialogue) and performative analysis (emphasis on performance such as gestures used). See Riessman for details.


Previously we noticed that two types of data were collected. Most of the data in this research was qualita-tive. The study focuses on the vulnerability and impact of flood, river bank erosion and flash flood on the PWDs, female headed households, sex group, occupational minority groups, religious minority groups, landless and land owner and their coping strategies. For this reason qualitative data was gathered rather than the quantitative data.

The purpose of qualitative inquiry suggests that the process of data collection is not an end in itself. The culminating activities of qualitative inquiry are analysis, interpretation and presentation of findings. The challenging task of the research team thus is to extract the sense from the massive data reducing them to sizable forms, identifying their significance and constructing a framework for communicating the essence of the messages they contain.

We have a few agreed methods for qualitative data analysis. These are applied in drawing conclusions and verifying the sturdiness of the problem. But no formula can determine the significance and no method can replicate the researcher’s analytical thinking process. These are some of the problems.

It does not mean that no guideline was followed in analyzing the collected data. Definitely guidelines and procedural suggestions are not rules of which some are discussed here.

22..44..33..11.. AANNAALLYYSSIISS OOFF IINNTTEERRVVIIEEWWSS

In case of open-ended interviews, cross case study or cross interview analysis for each question was done. Answers from different people were grouped together.

Variations in individual characteristics were the primary focus of the study and hence individual case analysis was done first by using data so collected. Then cross-case analysis was done by showing variations in answers to common questions to represent individual traits.

22..44..33..11.. AANNAALLYYSSIISS OOFF OOBBSSEERRVVAATTIIOONNSS

In analyzing observations six options were followed as mentioned below serially:

Chronology: The chronological description of observations, over time to represent the study from the beginning to end. Key events: By presenting the data with critical incidents or major events in order of importance. Various settings: By describing various places, sites, settings or locations before doing cross-setting pattern analysis. People: By the case studies of people or group. Process: By organizing the data to describe important processes (e.g. decision makings communication, segregation etc.) Issues: The observations were arranged together to illuminate key issues, such as how did participants change in their behaviour, group formation etc.

22..55.. SSTTEEPP FFOOUURR:: AAPPPPRRAAIISSAALL AANNDD AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTT

The present research attempted to explore the production possibilities and relationships for each of the coping strategies to understand the potentialities and prospects on the conceptual scale. The productive efficiency occurs when the system is operating at its production possibility frontier (PPF). This takes place when production of one output is achieved at the lowest cost possible. All points, therefore, on the produc-tion possibilities are points of maximum productive efficiency. The assessment develops a high-level understanding of efficiency strengths and identifies opportunities to improve efficiency.


22..66.. LLIIMMIITTAATTIIOONN OOFF TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY

The study has encountered the following limiting conditions:

□ Limited accessibility to the remote locations, since the time and other resources for this study were not permissive enough to reach such areas.

□ Sample Size– because of limited time and resource constraints– remains relatively small vis-à-vis the geographic coverage restraining the extent of confidence in generalizing the statistical analysis and to capture variations and diversities on the ground. However, the qualitative tools and techniques were largely used in reducing such limitations.

□ It was not possible to collect enough data from one of the most vulnerable groups such as mentally disorder and hearing impaired respondents, since we have limited capacities in establishing communi-cation with all types of PWDs especially with the persons with speech and hearing impairments.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR TTHHRREEEE PPRROOFFIILLIINNGG TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY AARREEAA

33..11.. TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY AARREEAA BBAACCKKGGRROOUUNNDD

33..11..11.. TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY AARREEAA -- KKUURRIIGGRRAAMM DDIISSTTRRIICCTT

Kurigram district is consists of 9 upazilas, and Raumari one of he upazila which is selected as study area for this research. Flood is the main hazard found from the 3 unions surveyed under the upazila. Location, ecological features, climate and agriculture are briefly described as follow.

33..11..11..11 LLOOCCAATTIIOONN OOFF TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY SSIITTEESS

Raumari (sometimes written as Roumari) is a remote Upazila in the north Bengal. Raumari is one of the 9 upazilas of Kurigram district which selected as study area for this research. Raumari Upazila with an area of 197.80 sq km, is bounded by Ulipur upazila on the north, Char Rajibpur upazila on the south, Assam State of India on the east, Char Rajibpur, chilmari and Ulipur upazilas on the west. However, this upazila is isolated from the main land of Kurigram by Jamuna River. In between lies a vast low land criss-crossing a few small rivers.

33..11..11..22.. EECCOOLLOOGGIICCAALL FFEEAATTUURREESS

Roumari was once a big char Island in the vast Brahmaputra riverbed, say more than 400 years ago. The eastern branch of Brahmaputra forming the natural boundary with present Megha-laya dried up gradually as a result of changing course of the river forming a vast low land. In the process the southern part of the island too, once separated from the eastern Bengal, which now forms the Rajibpur Upazila, joined with Dewanganj Upazila of Jamalpur district. The river Jinjiram now separates Roumari-Rajibpur from the mainland.

http://a-bangladesh.com/HT/C_0137.htm�



http://a-bangladesh.com/HT/U_0010.htm�


On the basis of physical features, drainage pattern and land levels, Raumari Upazila in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna Floodplain sub-regions Diaras and Chars Unit (Xb). The soil of this area is mostly grey floodplain soils in non-saline phase (Rashid H. 2005). Main rivers are Brahmaputra, Jhingiram and Halhali (previous name Sonabhari); Madaidanga and Bheramara Beels are notable. The geographical feature of Raumari upazila is changing due to the frequent river bank erosion in the rainy season. In the rivers new chars are raising with sand which demolished within 2 or 3 years.

33..11..11..33.. AAGGRRIICCUULLTTUURREE AANNDD EECCOONNOOMMYY

The economic activities are very limited in the area due to the poor transport system with the main land of Kurigram. Business is not well developed in this upazila and therefore most of the peoples are dependent on the agriculture and fishing for their living. Main crops are Paddy, jute, wheat, potato, mustard seed, onion, garlic, sugarcane, sesame etc. The people are migrating in the off agric season for income. The people are usually worked as day laborer in the agric field. Some of the crops are still cultivated for cope with the hazardous situation. These crops are mainly linseed, china, khesari, chhola, arahar, shan, kaun.

33..11..11..44.. IINNFFRRAASSTTRRUUCCTTUURRAALL SSCCEENNAARRIIOO

As it is geographically isolated from the main land of Kurigram therefore water transport system e.g. boat, ferry, is the only way for communication within the area. The communication with Raumari to Dhaka and Chittagong is developed recently. There is direct Bus service without Jamuna Bridge. Communication facilities can be define as pucca roads are 29 km, semi pucca 2 km and mud road 194.47 km; waterways 16 nautical mile. There are some traditional transport system still used for intercommunication like palan-quin, bullock cart and horse carriage.

33..11..22.. TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY AARREEAA -- LLAALLMMOONNIIRRHHAATT DDIISSTTRRIICCTT

33..11..22..11.. TTHHEE LLOOCCAATTIIOONNSS OOFF TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY SSIITTEESS Hatibandha Upazila is sur-rounded by Patgram upazila and West Bengal of India on the north, Kaliganj upazila on the south, West Bengal of India on the east, Dimla and Jaldhaka upazilas on the west. The upazila has an area of 288.42 sq km. On the other hand, Aditmari Upazila is bounded by Kuchbihar of India on the north, Gangachara upazila on the south, Lalmonirhat sadar upazila on the east and Kaliganj upazila on the west.

33..11..22..22.. EECCOOLLOOGGIICCAALL FFEEAATTUURREESS

The area is under Tista floodplain Unit (Rashid, 2005). The main rivers are Tista,

http://a-bangladesh.com/HT/B_0615.htm�


Trimohoni and Dharla and some other rivers like Sharnamati and Marashati are silted and almost dead. There is slight depression along the area. The main depressions are Namurir Beel.

Along the Tista rivers, Dharla and Dudkhumar rivers brown loamy soils are available for cultivation.

33..11..22..33.. AAGGRRIICCUULLTTUURREE AANNDD EECCOONNOOMMYY:: Main crops are Paddy, jute, wheat, potato, mustard seed, onion, garlic, sugarcane, sesame etc. The people are migrating in the off agric season for income. The people are usually worked as day laborer in the agric field. Some of the crops are still cultivated for cope with the hazardous situation. These crops are mainly linseed, china, khesari, chhola, arahar, shan, kaun.

33..22.. PPRROOFFIILLIINNGG RRIISSKKSS AANNDD HHAAZZAARRDDSS

The upazilas under Lalmonirhat and Kurigram districts are the most flood-affected areas in the country due to the factors like geographical positioning, river system, deltaic formation history and fluvial action. The area is exposed to natural hazards, such as, floods, flash floods, river erosion, droughts, cold waves etc.


The main rivers tista, Trimohoni and dharla rivers cause basinal flood every year. Rivers Sharnamati and Marashati are silted and almost dead.

The area is highly susceptible to increase of the flood frequency due to the climate change impacts, the river bank erosion, and embankment construction and water withdrawal in the upper stream. The livelihood base of the people significantly suffers erosion resulting from recurrent and exposure of diverse natural hazards.

33..33.. OOVVEERRVVIIEEWW OOFF TTHHEE RRIISSKK EENNVVIIRROONNMMEENNTT

In the study areas due to flood and river bank erosion, mainly livelihood assets like agriculture, fisheries are more vulnerable. In the same way, their economic activities, crops, vegetation, fish, water sources and cattle are vulnerable and mental health of the community people are also vulnerable. Moreover, flood destroys infrastructural systems, embankment as well as different institutional structures. Housing system also affected by the floods and river bank erosion. Heavy rainfall and sand deposition hamper the agricul-tural process and massive damage of crops (paddy, jute, sugarcane, maize, potato, wheat, peanut, mastered seed, vegetables, spices, and onion etc). In this way flood affects in all sectors of human life.

33..44.. PPEEOOPPLLEE AATT RRIISSKK AANNDD TTHHEE MMOOSSTT VVUULLNNEERRAABBLLEE GGRROOUUPPSS OOFF TTHHEE AARREEAA

The area has low economic activities which are mainly based on agriculture. In flood situation, low agric lands are the firstly affected. The poor landless, marginal landowners and PWDs as well as religious or occupational minority communities are the most vulnerable groups in the area. But women and children as being within the general communities are also more vulnerable than the men. The women of female headed households (No or below 18 male member in the household / migrant male member in the household) are also same vulnerable as minority community. Within the women headed households, elder women who are living alone are living miserably without any hazard.

33..55.. DDEEMMOOGGRRAAPPHHIICC FFEEAATTUURREESS OOFF TTHHEE RREESSPPOONNDDEENNTT

The respondents of the study were both male and female 7 group discussions with the women group and 10 group discussions with the men group each consists of 7-10 persons, had focused on the perception of the early warning, coping strategies, traditional knowledge regarding coping with flood, heavy rainfall, flash flood and river bank erosion. The participants of group discussions with women group aged between 25 to 65 years and male group 20 to 45 years. Young girls’ group discussion consists of 7 persons who are aged 12-18. On the other hand 2 group discussion with young boy’s group aged between 15 to 18 years.

Religions of the respondents are mainly Islam. The respondents of one group discussion with the occupa-tional minority community (Majhi/Fisherman) were also Hindus. One group discussion also held with the handloom workers.

The adult respondents have no schooling and education, some of them can read and write their name. But the young participants are all are have education from school. Among them 5 were studying in class five, 3 in class seven, 6 in class eight and others are stopped study after class five due to poverty.

The majority of the women respondents were housewives. Three women were involved with door to door fish selling in the surrounding villages. One of them was 65 years old and living alone. Another four women were working as a day laborer in the CLP (char livelihood project) organized by RDRS.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR FFOOUURR IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS AAPPPPRRAAIISSAALL OOFF RRIISSKKSS AANNDD TTHHRREEAATTSS

44..11.. IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTT OOFF RRIISSKK SSIITTUUAATTIIOONN

Scientific forecasts differ from traditional prediction in scale and, to some extent, in the type of factors used to predict weather patterns. Some of the weather predictors (e.g., wind speed and direction, temperature changes) used by farmers are similar to those used in the scientific forecast. However, while farmers have been using a combination of various biological, meteorological, and astronomical indicators to predict the rainfall, the scientific forecasts rely primarily on meteorological indicators, such as wind temperatures. Traditional forecasts are highly locale specific, mostly at the village level within a radius of one to two square kilometers, and are derived from an intimate interaction with a microenvironment observed over a period of time. In contrast, the scientific forecasts encompass much larger geographic scales of fifty to three hundred square kilometers and depend on global meteorological parameters and their dynamics.

44..11..11.. IIDDEENNTTIIFFIICCAATTIIOONN OOFF HHAAZZAARRDD TTHHRREEAATT AANNDD EESSTTIIMMAATTIIOONN

The study area is highly susceptible to natural hazards and climate change impacts. These areas are exposed to natural hazards of all possible sorts, such as, floods, river erosion, nor’westers, droughts, cold waves etc. The (co)occurrence of these natural events are often coupled and multiplied with the high base vulnerabilities of the individuals, households and communities results in disasters that further drive the country towards greater environmental degradation, hunger, poverty, social deprivation and political conflicts, and thereby withholding the socio-economic development of the country. Major hazards of the study areas are described briefly as follows.

44..11..11..11.. FFLLOOOODD–– TTHHEE MMOOSSTT FFRREEQQUUEENNTT EEVVEENNTT

Every year, and mostly several times in a year, the people of Northwest Bangladesh are experiencing flood. The monsoon floods in Northwest Bangladesh are mainly caused by general low topography of the area along with its location. Rainfall in the upstream countries, i.e. the catchment areas, river siltation, human interventions like construction of barrages and protective works along the banks of the river and deforesta-tion in the upper reaches of the rivers is not only leading accelerated water flow towards downstream but also causing deposition of loads in the river beds, resulting in reduced channel flow and consequent overland runoff water. Besides, there are other types of floods for instance, flash floods, caused by overflowing of hilly rivers of Northern Bangladesh.

History of floods in this area is perhaps inseparable from the history of this land. Floods are annual phenomena with the most severe occurring during the months of Jyaishtha to Ashwin (mid May to mid October). Regular river floods affect this area 2/ 3 times in a year. First time, it is occurred in the month of Jyaishtha (mid May to mid June), second time, it is occurred in the month of Ashar-Bhadra (mid June - mid September). This second time flood is common in this area. It occurs every year which destroys every sectors especially agriculture and livelihood of the local people. Sometimes flood is occurred in the month of Ashwin (mid September to mid October).

Flash flood occurs only in the border area of this area. It is occured here 3/ 4 times in every year from mid Jyaishtha to mid Kartik (June to October). It comes suddenly from Indian hilly area and stays 1/ 2 days. The water of the flash flood goes away through the local jhiri (river). But when there is heavy rainfall in the locality and the water level of the local river is increased, the flash flood water cannot go away through this


river. So flash flood water has been blocked in the locality and stay long time. It occurs every year which destroys every sectors especially agriculture and livelihood of the local people.

44..11..11..22.. RRIIVVEERR BBAANNKK EERROOSSIIOONN–– LLIIVVEESS OONN TTHHEE MMOOVVEE

Rivers in Northwest Bangladesh are morphologically highly dynamic. The main rivers are braided, and form islands or chars between the braiding channels. These chars, the habitat of many people, "move with the flow" and are extremely sensitive to changes in the river conditions. Erosion processes, being highly unpredictable, have dramatic consequences for the lives and livelihood of people those areas. The major type of river erosion in Northwest Bangladesh is a form of hydraulic action where the force of the water wears away the river bank from underneath. Erosion may also be accelerated by different factors. Inunda-tion of bank soils followed by rapid drops in flow after flooding, redirection and acceleration of flow, removal or disturbance of protective vegetation from stream banks as a result of trees falling from banks or through poorly managed stock grazing, clearing or fire intense rainfall events etc.

River bank erosion is seen here in the month of Jyaishtha (mid May to mid June) to the month of mid Kartik (last week of October). In fact, the river bank erosion changes geo-morphology of the area. The fertile lands are dissolved in the river water and after a few years these lands raise in the char lands which contains mainly unfertile sandy soil. The river bank erosion forced the local people to shift their homestead as well as occupation. Due to this hazard, a land owner becomes landless.

44..11..11..33.. KKAALLBBOOIISSHHAAKKHHII// NNOORR’’WWEESSTTEERRSS

The frequency of devastating nor’westers (kalbaishakhi) usually reaches the maximum in the last week of Falgun (first week of March) to the second week of Jyaishtha (last week of May), while a few occur in the last half of Baishakh to the first half of Jyaishtha (May), and the minimum in the first half of the last half of Falgun to first half of Chaitra (March). Nor’westers is more frequent in the afternoon. Wind-speeds in nor’westers usually do not exceed 113-130 km/hr (70-80 miles/hr), but in some cases speed may exceed 162 km/hr (100 miles/hr). Nor’westers brings the much needed pre monsoon rain. Nor’westers may occur in late February due to early withdrawal of winter from Bangladesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and adjoining areas. The occasional occurrence of nor’westers in early June is due to delay in the onset of the Southwest monsoon over the region (Karmakar, 1989).

44..11..11..44.. DDRROOUUGGHHTT

Drought is an abnormal condition where there is a lack of sufficient water to meet the normal needs of agriculture, livestock, industry, or for human use. While generally associated with semi-arid or desert


Puber thoney ailo batas nodee oilo tol Dyash pirthimi sagar voira choray namlo jol \

Joana bhairey \ Kachi bogee songey loiya pat katitey chol

Joana bhairey \ Puber thoney boichhey batas namchhey myager

dhol \ Ek nimishey duina jahan korbey bujhi tol \

Joana bhairey \ Jhor badoley din mojuree dibo tyaha tyaha.

Shigree koira bairaore chalao bishom thyaha \ Joana bhairey \

Bihan bela dibo khaon pabda-boal-koi. Tahar songey paiba aro hater soros doi \

Joana bhairey \ Kachi bagee songey loiya pat katitey chol

Joana bhairey \

Interpretation: This is a labor music, once sung in the fields by the agric laborers while working in the jute fields under of some owner. The song contains the description of rivers swelling up with water reinforced by the easterly wind. It also gives the description of food supplied by the owner to the laborers and is really covetable. This indicates that working as laborers during jute cutting time was attractive, which is now myth.

climates, droughts can also occur in areas that normally enjoy adequate rainfall, and moisture levels (ADB, 1991). Draught is the result of insufficient or no rainfall for an extended period, and causes a considerable hydrological (water) imbalance. The ensuing water shortage leads to stream flow reduction, depletion of ground water and soil moisture, and hence, crop damage. In drought conditions, evaporation and transpira-tion exceed normal levels. If it continues for a prolonged period, a serious threat is posed to agricultural production. Based on drought severity, crop loss ranges between 20->60% for T. Aman and other rice varieties (Iqbal, 2000). It is one of the most insidious causes of human misery. Seasonal drought occurs due to abnormal rainfall shortage in places where there are well-defined annual rainy and dry seasons. Unpredictable drought involves an abnormal rainfall failure, mostly in localized areas of humid and sub-humid climates.

Drought conditions due to deficiency in rainfall affect Northwestern parts of Bangladesh mostly during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. The drought of 1979 was one of the most severe in recent times for this area. Droughts occurred in Northwest Bangladesh from last week of Magh to Baishakh (second week of February to mid May).

44..11..22.. IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS KKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEE OOFF EEAARRLLYY WWAARRNNIINNGG

In the study areas, most people, especially younger people are dependent on modern device such as radio for weather forecasting. Although they may not have their own radio, they collect information about early warning/ weather forecasting from various social gatherings at the nearby market centers. Data gathered during group discussions and interviews suggest that younger people are not aware about indigenous/ traditional early warning symptom or prediction system. Most of the young people mentioned that they are not interested to learn as they can easily get the information from other modern technologies such as radio. Attitude of younger generation reflects through their comments as one young school-going girl said, “nani dadider kachh theke esob shikhar ar ki dorkar, radio tei to ekhon sob boley.”

Elderly people in the village by using their tradition-al knowledge system can predict weather situation beforehand and can determine the nature of flood and can prepare themselves to reduce the risks of floods. Most cases, their predictions are almost similar to the modern forecasting what they gain from radio. There are little variations in the traditional knowledge system across different social categories. Thus, all vulnerable categories of men and women (landless, land owner, women headed household, PWDs, occupational minority groups- tantee, fisher women, religious minority groups- Hindu) predict early earning in similar ways.

44..11..22..11.. TTRRAADDIITTIIOONNAALL IINNDDIICCAATTOORRSS

Some traditional signs and symptoms about excessive rainfall, flood, flash flood and river bank erosion are gathered from different categories of social groups. The sign and symptoms are discussed below.

Temperature and humidity: During the Bengali


Purna Ashar daxina bay. Sei batsar banna hayII

Amey ban. Tentuley dhanII

Interpretation: If there is southerly wind round the month of Ashar, there may be flood in the year. Similarly a good mango harvest accompanies flood, whereas if there is good tamarind crop, there will be good harvest of rice.

Kala hajey alabhala.

Dhola hajey borey bhala.

Interpretation: White cloud gives more rain than the black one.

Bang dakey ghana ghana. Shigra brishti habey jeno \ Baishakher pratham jaley.

Aush dhan digun faley \ Khana baley shuno bhai.

Tulay tula adhik pai \

Interpretation: Frequent call of frogs indicates immediate rain. The first shower of Boishakh produces double aoush. Knana conveys all that cotton grows more.

months of Jyaishtha to Ashwin when the outside temperature is high, the community people use this as a sign of early warning for the immediate rain and flood. According to them the high temperatures followed by heavy cloud will cause flash flood within few days. To quote in their own terms “gaye jodi gorm batas lagey tailey 2/ 3 diner moddhey ghono megh hobe abobg breishti hobey.” This traditional knowledge of early warning is widely practiced in the community. It is observed that most of the elderly people heavily rely on this sort of knowledge.

Direction of wind: Another important sign of early warning of flood used by the community is the direction of the wind. It is believed that if the wind flows from South-East to North-West, heavy cloud will be formed in North-West corner of the sky which eventually will bring heavy rain-fall.

Cloud (color and type): The color of the clouds also work as an important sign of predicting the flood. The heavy clouds with dark or dark ash color are deemed to cause heavy rainfall. If the dark cloud covers the large part of the sky and do not move somewhere else, means that the cloud is very angry and can cause a gloomy weather which results in heavy rainfall for at least 4 to 5 days. This type of rainfall usually causes flash flood within the next 8 to 10 days.

Rainfall (location and type): It is also believed that if the heavy rainfalls continue for 2/ 3 days in the hilly area of the border between India and Bangladesh, flash flood will most likely to occur in adjacent areas which includes the studied Roumari Upazila of Kurigram District. This heavy and conti-nuous rainfall in the areas increases the water level of the local rivers which in turn causes flood in the areas within very short time.

River water (color and flow/ current): The color of the river water also used as a sign of flood in the community. When the color of river water becomes dark and hazy, they predict that the water of the river is going to increase which causes flood and river bank erosion in the studied areas. In addition, when the river becomes very rough, the community believes that the river bank erosion is almost cer-tain.

Animal behavior (ant, frog): It is very important to mention that the behavior of certain animals also provide some clues to predict the flood. As the community described, when ants as a group come out with their food and egg from the soil, the community people mentioned that this behavior is a sign when they can foresee that it is going to rain. Apart from the ants, the behavior of frogs also gives them cer-tain clues which help them predicting the flood in the areas. As some respondents mentioned that when they hear the ‘cry’ of the frogs together, they become certain that within 2-3 days it is going to be raining. As the respondents mentioned that “frogs cry when they see cloud in the sky” which make the community believe that flood is certain.


Curve of river bank (Kachhar): Generally kachhar/ the curve of the river bank are broken.

Traditional method for prediction (aurum leaf): ‘Water in arum leaves’ is a method which is widely used in the community in predicting the nature of the rainy season. Some arum plants with leaves are selected for this testing. From the selected plants, 12 leaves with their stalks are separated. Then, each of the selected leaves is named after the months of Bengali calendar. So, each leaf will represent a month of the year. The selected leaves are tied with ropes. Next morning the designated person reo-pens the fastening of the leaves and measures the amount of water collected in each of the leaves representing a month. There is always a designated person/s in the community to perform this job. They perform this job at night known as (gashi rat) of the Ashwin (mid September to mid October).

44..11..33.. AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTT OOFF VVUULLNNEERRAABBIILLIITTIIEESS OOFF LLOOCCAALL PPEEOOPPLLEE

The vulnerabilities of flood, flash flood and river bank erosion are different for different social groups. The categories of social groups are (landless, Marginal land owner, women headed household, PWDs, occupational minority groups- such as tanti, fishermen, religious minority groups- mainly Hindus). These hazards affect every aspect of their lives and livelihoods. However, as most of the people are engaged in agriculture for their livelihoods this chapter focuses on the main areas of their lives and made an effort to assess their vulnerabilities in those areas. The study was carried out in Rowmari and hatibandha unions of kurigram and Lalmonirhat districts respectively.

44..11..33..11.. AAGGRRIICCUULLTTUURREE

It is well known that most people in north western districts are relatively poor. Some districts are also known as monga-prone district. Monga is a condition of the year in agri-based rural areas where there are acute shortages of food and work and thus most people have little or no food and money to live their lives. The livelihood for most of the households depends on agriculture. Among all the households almost 90% do not have any land of their own. Only few of the households are the owner of most lands in the village. Rests of the landless farmers are engaged in the adhi system of land cultivation. Adhi is the traditional system of land cultivation where the owners of the lands get the half of the total agricultural outputs and the other half goes to the farmers who grow it. The Adhi system, without few exceptions, remains same for most of the areas. The owner of the lands get to decide what crops to grow and when. The agricultural inputs usually come from the farmers who take the adhi from the owner.

Flood has robust impacts on agriculture. Heavy flood causes less or no agricultural production that directly impacts peasant’s food intake pattern and their ability to purchase other goods and services. The vulnera-bilities of flood and the coping strategies vary to different categories of social groups. Rice is the staple crop for the peasants. Peasants produce the local variety Aman in Kurigram and Lamonirhat district. The quality of the soil suited well for the production of this kind of variety in that area. However, the agricultural lands can also be used for the production of others crops as well. The farmers use their cultivable lands for more than one crop in a calendar year. However, the production of aman rice is the main source for the subsis-tence of the farmers. Due to the flood when the agricultural output goes down, it affects their livelihood severely. As field data suggest every year the repeated flood destroys the Aman paddy in that areas. For example, due to the flood, last year the production of aman paddy was very low. Thus, the price of rice went up which was unaffordable to many to buy. As stated before the vulnerabilities and coping strategies are different for cross sections of population. Below is the description and nature of vulnerabilities in the realm of agriculture among different categories of social groups.

□ Marginal Landowner: In this study we have defined marginalized land owners as those who have less than 2 bigha of cultivable land. Field data suggest that about 10-12 % of the total households of any


village under study fall under this category. Marginalized farmers depend heavily on the production from their agricultural lands. The vulnerabilities of flood among the marginalized formers remain very high. Like many, aman is their main crop. When the flood hit it completely damages their aman produc-tion. In some cases, the repeated flood also damages their seeds for seedling. The lack of money and seeds on time is their main vulnerabilities what they face due to flood. The price of rice seeds and wages for the seedlings of paddy also go high after the flood. They do not have enough money to cope with the situation. Often times, low production forced them to buy rice from other rich neighbors who managed to store rice from the previous year to meet the basic food need of the family.

□ Landless, Occupational Minority groups, Women Headed Household and PWDs: In this study, landless farmers are those who do not own any land on their own but can only sell their labor power to the market. The system of hiring the agricultural labor is almost similar in the two study areas. The adhi system of land cultivation is unequal and exploitive in nature. The landless farmers are being margina-lized from this system of land tenure. Due to flood, this system becomes even more exploitative. Thus, it increases the vulnerabilities of the landless farmers. In fact, they are the worst victim of flood in terms of agricultural vulnerabilities. In the flood situation, the landless farmers become unemployed; they have no work to do. Lack of income results in their starvation. Data from the field suggest that during and after the flood most of the landless families go to sleep with empty stomach. If they are lucky some may manage to eat one or two meals per day. Many of the landless farmers mentioned that their big-gest challenge during the flood is joblessness as they cannot make any income to support themselves. Sometimes they have to lower the amount of food per meal as one of them told “adhpeta kheye din katate hoy.” He similar situation exit in other marginalized social categories as well. The women of the women headed households and female PWDs also have to face the same fate during and after flood.

44..11..33..22.. HHOOMMEESSTTEEAADD GGAARRDDEENNIINNGG

In most cases, it was observed that homestead gardening significantly contributes as a source of daily food for the households. For some households, homestead gardening also works as a source of income. Usually, the women in the households take care of the homestead gardening. They mostly grow vegetables such as bilati lau, pani kumra, potol, shibcharan, shosha, bangi, peypey etc. and when in abundance they also sell it to the market which generates an income for the family. Most of the households mentioned that the vegetables they eat comes from the homestead gardening. However, due to flood, their source of food and income also suffer. Thus, their vulnerabilities along with the rice, vegetables also become scarce and pricy for them to buy. Vegetables as a source of everyday nutrient to the family also become impossible for the farmers. In the recent past, most of the female respondents mentioned that their homestead garden was completely destroyed as the water level of the previous flood was really high.

Women of the women headed household and landless women depend on homestead gardening for making a living. Due to flood when the homestead gardening are damaged, they lost their only source of living. Thus, for the women and landless farmers the negative effects of flood on homestead gardening is very high.

44..11..33..33.. IINNFFRRAASSTTRRUUCCTTUURREE

By infrastructure here we refer to the main roads, culverts, bridges, and other physical structures in the study areas. Infrastructure plays an important role in the local livelihood and economy. However, due to flood when the infrastructures are damaged, it also increases the vulnerabilities of the local population. Due to insufficient transportation the prices of local goods go up. During our field trips we found only a limited number of pavement roads that connects the upazilla center, local union parishad building and other government service providing facilities to the villages. There are also a few number of pacca roads which


are connected to union and upazila centers. But, in the char areas lack of proper roads has been a problem. During flood, most of the roads, culverts and bridges in the community go under water. Boats and banana rafts (vhura) become the only mode of transportation for the local people. Mobility of the community in general is low at that time. Especially the women and children do not go outside during the flood unless it is very necessary. Even for the adult male members they mentioned that they cannot come home as frequently as they would like to. They stay in the market and spent hours in the tea stalls as boats are not readily available and it costs money to communicate as well.

44..11..33..44.. HHOOUUSSIINNGG

The study areas are low-lying land. Plinths of most houses are about two feet high. During the flood almost all the houses go under water. Most houses are made of bamboo pillar, jute stick fence and hemp/ tin on the top. However, those who cannot afford the tin also use other available cheap materials. After the flood water recedes these bamboo pillar and jute stick fence are of no use as they are damaged due to flood and require new materials which are difficult to afford for poor people of the areas.

□ Landless, Marginal Landowner, Occupational Minority groups: The houses of these groups are most vulnerable because of its poor construction materials (jute stick fence, bamboo pillar, hemp roof).Due to flood, the houses are completely destroyed however, as they do not have enough money to rebuild their houses the sufferings for a living in a houses is very common to this group of people.

□ Women headed household and PWDs: In addition, the women headed households also lack extra labor necessary for building/rebuilding a new house. Likewise, the poor constructions materials of houses are damaged due to flood. They have no physical ability to repair their house as well as they have no money to repair by labors.

44..11..33..55.. LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODDSS,, OOCCCCUUPPAATTIIOONN AANNDD IINNCCOOMMEE

During flood most people have no work to do. High rate of unemployment is a major problem for the people to cope with the flood. As most people are employed in agriculture labor market when the land is under water they become jobless. Although some of them try to make a living by doing something else such as fishing in the nearby rivers and jheels. However, field data suggest that the option of seasonal fishing also become limited for them. Some local elites took the leases of the rivers from government thus do not allow anyone to catch fish. The level of vulnerability of the marginalized people becomes severe due to their joblessness. However, the fishermen community does not face this sort of problem as they can continue fishing intermittently at times of flood.

44..11..33..66.. FFOOOODD SSUUPPPPLLYY AANNDD SSTTAATTEE OOFF NNUUTTRRIITTIIOONN

During and after flood, people face scarcity of food which significantly affects their health and nutrition. Due to flood, the price of essential food items goes up. It becomes very difficult for most of the marginalized people to ensure three meals a day. Among other food items, rice is the most important as most people are used to have rice in every meal. Co-relation between food intake and different social groups at times of flood is pretty straight. Those who are better off in terms of food storage and income can have a higher degree of food intake. Most farmers produce rice as their main crop to ensure their food for the next year. Naturally, when the production goes down it negatively impact their rice consumption. Along with the rice, unavailability of vegetables also limits their options of food supply.

44..11..33..77.. SSAAFFEE DDRRIINNKKIINNGG WWAATTEERR AANNDD SSAANNIITTAATTIIOONN

The scenario of safe drinking water and sanitation is less than satisfactory in the studied areas. In the studied villages we have found that most of the households do not posses any sanitary latrines and there


are only few tube wells in the village. In compare to other areas in the same district, the access to pure drinking water is very limited. Only few well-off families have the tube wells of their own. When needed, people collect the drinking water from their neighbors. Sometimes they walk about 60-70 yards to collect drinking water. It is also observed that there are some NGO sponsored tube wells in the village which is insufficient to meet the daily needs of the villagers. Collecting safe drinking water at the time of flood is a painstaking job for many especially for the women. It is also noticed that most of the tube wells are functional at the time of flood. It is because that more elevated level of the tube wells are built to keep them safe during flood. Female PWDs are dependent on their family members for ensuring safe drinking water.

44..11..33..88.. SSTTAATTEE OOFF HHEEAALLTTHH AANNDD DDIISSEEAASSEESS

Health has an important significance to assess the vulnerability of people during and post flood situations. The prevalence of diseases is high at times of flood. Especially when the flood water recedes, many water borne diseases such as diarrhea, dysentery and other skin diseases are common. Among others, women and children have a high prevalence of water borne diseases. People rely heavily on their own traditional knowledge of treating these diseases. Most people know about oral saline and they buy saline packets from the local market and many mentioned that if need be they also know how to make saline at home. Use of traditional healers is very common. However, in case of emergency they seek modern medical treatment from the nearby hospitals. Physical access to hospitals during flood is a real challenge for them. It is very difficult to arrange boats and vhuras during flood to carry critical patients to and from hospitals. The persons with disabilities (PWDs) even face more challenges to having physical access to modern health facilities during flood. In addition, lack and high cost of medicines also are problems for many at times when they barely can feed themselves.

44..11..33..99.. SSHHEELLTTEERR

In the study areas a significant number of flood shelters established but local people do not feel comfortable to take shelter there in the emergency situation as far as the reasons are follows:

□ The location of shelters and accessibility routes were not friendly for women, children, aged people and person with disability.

□ Both number of and space in Flood shelters was inadequate to attract people. □ The physical constructions of the Flood shelters were not disability sensitive. □ During severe crisis, the moment they realized about the flood, most of the people moved out of their

houses and attempted to take shelter in the apparently well-built houses within their proximity. □ Some of the local flood resilient infrastructures belonging to different agencies were not accessible due

to policy provisions. □ Some national NGOs having resilient structures in the flood affected study region did not allow the local

people, except their members, to take shelters in their premises. □ The UDMC members were also being exposed to the similar conditions and hence, they were not in a

position to assist others. □ Some of the female respondents reported that they had been waiting for the male members of the family

to come, instead of moving independently or alone to flood shelters and/ or any other safe places be-cause of perceived security reasons.

VVuullnneerraabbiilliittiieess

Physical/ Structural □ Distance, routes and accessibility to flood shelters. □ Inadequate assistive technologies or equipments for movement during evacuation.


□ Dress patterns (share) and long hair of the females become very difficult to manage during emergency evacuation

Social/ Organizational □ Sometimes require assistance during evacuation □ Restrained access to public gathering and possibilities of being discriminated. □ Too little capacity to respond properly under emergency situations □ Stigma by the people.

Attitudinal/ Motivational □ Limited ability to voice own concerns within groups and households, degree of participation in decision-

making, perceived treatment by others □ Young female PWDs are not willing or even not allowed by their guardians to go to shelter due to

privacy and insecurity.

The research findings revealed that a significant number of the respondents remained at their respective residences during the emergency and, however, explored the different reasons behind their stay instead of moving into safe places. They reported of inadequate number of flood shelter in their respective neighbour-hoods and the existing flood shelter are located at distant places and the routes are difficult for them to travel to the flood shelters.

The respondents reported that the existing flood shelters are not only disability sensitive. More over there is no special arrangement or adequate privacy for the female in the flood shelter. So the guardians also feel unsafe and insecure to take their young female family member to shelter centre.

44..11..44.. MMOOTTIIVVAATTIIOONNAALL AANNDD AATTTTIITTUUDDIINNAALL DDIIMMEENNSSIIOONNSS OOFF VVUULLNNEERRAABBIILLIITTYY AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTT

This is an important element of vulnerability assessment as it directly impacts people’s efforts to cope with the flood. The psycho social profile of the people is very important as this help people to utilize their capacity fully to reduce their risk of flood. Flood as a natural hazard has multiple histories in people’s psyche. The transformation of oral history helped people to deal better with the consequences of flood from one generation to another. Flood is still considered by many as a punishment by the God for the misdeed they do on the earth. People still are very fatalistic about the causes of flood. There is a strong sense of spirituality attached to that. However, with the advent of modern technology and other social systems people are more aware about the ‘better’ ways of dealing with flood. In the studied area it is observed that people are eventually becoming more aware to cope with flood. Due to initiatives taken by the government and non governmental institutions, people have certain expectations from them especially in post flood situations. They expect relief materials to cope with the immediate shock of flood. However, people are very resilient to flood and they are motivated enough to diversify their options to cope with the flood.

44..11..55.. IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS PPEERRCCEEPPTTIIOONN OOFF RRIISSKK EESSTTIIMMAATTIIOONN AANNDD EEVVAALLUUAATTIIOONN

Generally, people have their own perception of hazard risk estimation. In regards to flood, risk of flood is the deduction of individual capacity from her/his level of vulnerabilities. The resultant of this deduction is identified as individual risk. However, people prioritize their risks according to their own perception. We have discussed the thematic areas of individual vulnerabilities across social categories. Among all these themes discussed above individual perception of flood risk also vary depending on his capacity to cope with the vulnerabilities. As people in two unions under study are mostly landless marginalized farmers, in this section we have identified what are the priority risks identified by them. In their risk estimation and evalua-tion three main areas are most important for them. And these are:


Food supply: Most people feel at risk about their food insecurity. Among other things, they want to ensure their food during and after the flood situation. They adopt various strategies to cope with this situation. By taking loans from formal and informal sources, borrowing paddy from the rich farmers and by post flood seasonal migration. However, if those attempts are not successful they live with less-than-enough or no food.

Health: The second risk identified by many is the risk of their health. They are exposed to many diseases at times of flood. The sufferings from diseases are something which cost them heavily. Most of them cannot afford the cost of treatment if the diseases require to be treated in modern health facilities. Lack of trans-port, infrastructure and quality health care facilities makes their life very risky during and after the flood.

Income: Most landless and marginalized farmers become jobless at times of flood. Their income is at risk at times of flood.

44..22.. AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTT OOFF SSOOCCIIAALL AANNDD IINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNAALL MMEEDDIIAATTIINNGG CCOONNDDIITTIIOONNSS

44..22..11.. SSOOCCIIOO--CCUULLTTUURRAALL FFEEAATTUURREESS AANNDD SSOOCCIIAALL CCAAPPIITTAALL

44..22..11..11.. IINNTTRRAA--HHOOUUSSEEHHOOLLDD DDYYNNAAMMIICCSS:: TTHHEE GGEENNDDEERREEDD DDIIMMEENNSSIIOONN

Family structures of the studied villages in two different districts are pretty similar. Like any other villages in Bangladesh there is presence of both extended and nuclear families. However the presence of two-parent nuclear families is higher. Over time, various factors such as changes in family land ownerships, growth of market, and population growth etc. created a demand for nuclear families.

In most nuclear families, it is the male member who is expected to be the provider of bread and butter for the family. During flood, when males become jobless it is difficult for the family to survive. Field data suggest at times of flood, it is the women who take more responsibilities to run the families over men. In the context of male dominance and authority in rural households, males lose their control over women and family incomes due to his joblessness during flood. Data suggest that family fights between husband and wife also common at times of flood. As many women mentioned their husbands become impatient during flood time and fights with them on issues mostly for bad and late cooking.

After the flood, seasonal migration of male members is of another concern for women. Although temporary, women have to articulate more family responsibility to protect children in absence of their husbands. Besides, the women of nuclear families, the young women and girls becomes significantly vulnerable and feel highly insecure during the absence of the male members of their respective households who are on temporarily migration.

44..22..11..22.. KKIINNSSHHIIPP GGRROOUUPPSS

Usually, nuclear families in the villages live with other household units from the same extended kin groups. The socio economic conditions of different kin groups are not necessarily the same. At times of flood the ties among kin become vibrant and stronger. It is usually the rich kin who help out others when they are at need during flood. Relatively better off kin provide foods, temporary shelters, loans on easy terms and also expect them to return the favor mostly by providing labor for their domestic needs.

44..22..11..33.. IINNFFOORRMMAALL SSOOCCIIAALL GGAATTHHEERRIINNGGSS

Informal social gatherings are the popular entertainment and recreation for the males where they hang out, gossip and exchange ideas. Usually, they gather in nearby tea stalls in and around the village and talk out different issues ranging from the price of fertilizer to the presidential election in the USA. During flood, their mobility become limited and they remain in the households what they are not used to. When and if they


leave their house at the morning they come home at night. Most males mentioned that they become bore and worried about how to run their families at that time. They go to nearby market centers to find ways to fight this situation. With no money in the pocket, sometimes they escape their lunch.

Social gatherings for women during afternoons in the yards are common in two villages. They informed when they have leisure times, they usually come to the yard to gossip, talk and have fun. However, during flood when they have waist- deep water around them it becomes impossible. They mentioned that they remain worry about their children’s safety and become more vigilant to protect their houses from venomous snakes and other poisonous animals.

44..22..11..44.. SSOOCCIIAALL CCAAPPIITTAALL

Social capital means the social networks that individual establish through formal or informal social organiza-tions. The term capital is of importance and these arrays of social networks can also be utilized to accele-rate individual life chances in the existing livelihoods. At times of flood these social capital appear to be strong form of assets for many individuals. The amount and nature of social capital vary for each individual. However, social capital from formal organizations such as family is very important in any hazards. Affilia-tions to other social organizations such as school, religious organizations, clubs, NGOs also become very important during flood situations. In terms of vulnerability of flood, these social capital remain strong to overcome the situations. Indeed, this form of assets is an important coping mechanism for the individuals.

44..22..11..55.. EEDDUUCCAATTIIOONN

Most villages have schools at least for the primary level. However, access to quality educational institutions are not the same across social categories. The children of poor and low income families are less prepared to get in to the quality educational institutions. The schools if not under water remain open at times of flood. School attendance during flood is lower and it becomes very difficult especially for the children to attend school. Lack of roads and adequate transportation during flood are main reasons for low attendance. Parents also are little bothered if their children cannot go to school. However, interview with the school authorities revealed the fact that they try to keep schools open as per government instructions but like others they also mentioned that it is a difficult journey indeed for the children to come to school when there is water everywhere. At times of heavy flooding, these educational institutions play an important role in terms of seeking shelters for those who are forced to evacuate their homes.

44..22..22.. MMUULLTTIIMMEEDDIIAATTIINNGG PPRROOCCEESSSSEESS AANNDD IINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNAALL FFEEAATTUURREESS

Government of Bangladesh (GoB) always plays a comprehensive role for maintaining social harmony through distribution of resources towards the disadvantaged groups as well as playing important roles in mitigating the local people’s sufferings trough alleviating miseries of vulnerable poor or those at risk of being poor due to any physical or economic shocks. In this connection Government has taken some measures which are observed in the study areas. Local government institutions execute the Government’s initiatives collaboration with NGOs. NGOs also play an important role to implement the interventions. Community based organizations also take some measures for the community.

44..22..22..11.. SSAAFFEETTYY NNEETT PPRROOGGRRAAMMMMEESS AANNDD GGOOVVEERRNNMMEENNTT IINNTTEERRVVEENNTTIIOONNSS

Social Safety Net Programme (SSNP) has been taken by the Government of Bangladesh for maintaining human productivity, preventing long-term damages due to severe malnutrition in early childhood, the failure of orphans or street children to attend school, or the sale of household assets such as land or livestock at the time of crises. The existing SSNP in the study areas are- Female Secondary Education Stipend (FSSAP), Vulnerable Group Development (VGD), Gratuitous Relief (GR), Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF),


Rural Maintenance Programme (RIDP), Test Relief (RIMP), Old Age Allowances, Allowances for Widow Distress Women, Char Livelihood Programme (CLP), Allowances for Retarded Disabled Persons, Disaster Affected Farmers’ Fund, Community Nutrition Programme, Fund for Hard Core Poor for Employment Generation.

SSAAFFEETTYY NNEETT PPRROOGGRRAAMMMMEESS IINN RROOUUMMAARRII,, HHAATTIIBBAANNDDHHAA

AANNDD AADDIITTMMAARRII PPUURRPPOOSSEE IIMMPPLLEEMMEENNTTIINNGG

AAGGEENNCCIIEESS NNAATTUURREE AANNDD VVAALLUUEE OOFF TTHHEE BBEENNEEFFIITT

Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF)

Provide food and other emergency assistance to disaster victims

Ministry of Food and Disaster Ministry

1. Entitlement depends on the amount of work done.

2. Food support monthly 10 kg rice for 1 to 3 months per each VGF cardhold-er.

Gratuitous Relief (GR) Provide food and other short-term emergency assistance to disaster victims

Ministry of Food and Disaster Ministry

1. Entitlement depends on the amount of work done.

2. Food Support: Monthly 10 to 20 Kg rice during scarcity of food per each selected poor family.

3. Provide saree, lungi, blanket, biscuits and dry foods among the affected people.

Female Secondary Education Stipend (FSSAP)

Increasing female student enrolment at secondary schools and reducing of under age marriage

Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, MoE

1. Stipend Tk. 300 (G6), 360 (G7), 420 (G8), 720 (G9 & 10).

2. Free tuition & examination. 3. Book allowance benefit conditional

on attendance, examination and marriage criteria.

Rural Maintenance Programme (RMP)

Empowerment of women and maintain-ing rural infrastructure

LGED, CARE Bangladesh

1. Tk. 51.00 per day

Vulnerable Group Development (VGD)

Developing life skills for women through training

MoWCA, Directorate of Relief Rehabili-tation

1. 30 Kg of wheat per month. 2. Training totaling about 150 hours. 3. On graduation beneficiaries can

access BRAC’s micro credit pro-gramme

Test Relief (RIMP) Employment generation for the people in poverty stricken areas and developing as well as maintaining rural infrastructure

MoF&DM 1. 6 Kg. of rice per day’s work

Old Age Allowances Livelihood support to the elderly people

Department of Social Services, MoSW

1. Tk. 180 per month 2. Cash is transfered by public banks.

Allowances for Widow Distress Women

Livelihood support to the elderly people


-

Allowances for Retarded Disabled Persons

Providing subsidence allowance to fully retarded persons


1. Tk. 200 per month per person

Char Livelihood Pro-gramme (CLP)

Livelihood support to the poor people & raising plinth of house

DFID 1. Raising plinth of house 2. Provide livestock for alternative

livelihood Community Nutrition Programme

To achieve sustaina-ble improvements in

MoHP&FW 1. Reduce the severe and moderate PEM in children under 2, to improve


SSAAFFEETTYY NNEETT PPRROOGGRRAAMMMMEESS IINN RROOUUMMAARRII,, HHAATTIIBBAANNDDHHAA

AANNDD AADDIITTMMAARRII PPUURRPPOOSSEE IIMMPPLLEEMMEENNTTIINNGG

AAGGEENNCCIIEESS NNAATTUURREE AANNDD VVAALLUUEE OOFF TTHHEE BBEENNEEFFIITT

the nutritional status of the population particularly children and women through adoption of new behaviors and appropriate use of nutrition.

pre-pregnancy weight and pregnancy weight gain, thereby reducing the incidence of LBW & reduce micro nutrient deficiency.

2. Ensure household food security and bring positive changes in maternal infant and child curing practices.

3. Reduce maternal & child morbidity of mortality.

Fund for Hard Core Poor for Employment Genera-tion

Provided food, nutrition and cash for their development, Monga area is given priority.

PKSF 1. Provide food, nutrition and cash for their development

44..22..22..22.. LLOOCCAALL GGOOVVEERRNNMMEENNTT IINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNSS

LLOOCCAALL GGOOVVEERRNNMMEENNTT:: In Bangladesh local Government always plays an important role as the first responder during disaster situations as well as playing important roles in mitigating the local people’s sufferings. In this connection Union Parishad (UP) takes some measures, as we observed during our field study, before, during and after the disaster in accordance with the following Govt. instruction:

□ Local Government announce the early warning signals with their limited resources.

□ As an important stakeholder local Government personnel made an exhaustive list of the worst sufferers

□ They also assisted outside agencies in selecting beneficiaries and distribution of relief materials.

In our study area we talked to UP members about disaster. They said that they have some special plan for disaster. They tried to help the vulnerable people such as women, landless, aged person in different events (VGD, VGF). Beside these, they have special programme, monthly allowance for PWDs.

LLOOCCAALL AADDMMIINNIISSTTRRAATTIIOONN:: In the study area we found the information through KII and PLW that local administration tried to involve and work direct in every aspect of disaster management programme to reduce the local people’s sufferings during disaster. With their limited capacity they tried to disseminate the early warning message, but they get very small time to announce that. They also help the local people to take shelter in safe place. They have special attention on women, children. But on the issue of PWDs they became keep silent Because though they are informed about the sufferings of the PWDs but they have limited options in their hand to help the PWDs. Under local administration Social welfare department took some step for the development of the PWDs such as –they provided 10000 taka as a loan for business purpose in low rate of profit, they also arrange some scholarship for the PWD student (10 scholarships for 1 Upozila). But problem with the local Govt. and Administration is that sometimes they cannot maintain the transparent in their work.

UUDDMMCC:: Through KII and PLW, we found that all the organization, in the study areas, remained active during this disaster to reduce people’s sufferings. They work together in different stages of disaster. They work in early warning dissemination, rescue and search, relief distribution at the local level.

44..22..22..33.. CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY--BBAASSEEDD OORRGGAANNIIZZAATTIIOONNSS

Jadurchar Union Somaj Kollyan Federation: Jadurchar Union Somaj Kollyan Federation is a community based organization of Roumari Upazila under Kurigram District which is established in 17 February 1999,


but got registration in 20 December 2006. Primarily RDRS helped this organization. RDRS has conducted training for improving the skill of federation members under DPEKO programme about shelter manage-ment, water, sanitation, communication and disaster preparedness. Now the federation is working with its own strength. The members of the federation work as volunteers who help the Union Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) for executing their activities such as warning dissemination, search and rescue, relief distribution etc..

44..22..22..44.. NNOONN--GGOOVVEERRNNMMEENNTT DDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTT AAGGEENNCCIIEESS

NGO always plays an important role for the development of community people. The information is found through KII and PLW that NGOs had specialized focus on vulnerable groups (landless, women, PWDs etc) in the study area. RDRS, RSDA, CARE, ASHA, GRAMEEN BANK, UDDIPON and BRAC are working in Roumari Upazila of Kurigram District. POPI, RDRS, PLAN BANGLADESH, BRAC, ASHA, GRAMEEN BANK, ASOD and ESDO are working in Hatibandha and Adityamari Upazila of Lalmonirhat District. These NGOs are working on disaster preparedness programme, Char Livelihood Programme (CLP), credit programme etc.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR FFIIVVEE IINNDDIIGGEENNOOUUSS CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

Flood is the most severe hazard in these area and most of the time the impacts are cumulative and the effects are magnified at the local level. In order to cope with the regular flood, flash flood and river erosion, the people attempt to address risk problems ex ante. There are some good community practices concern-ing ex ante risk management which more often include enterprise diversification. Using off-farm income to offset risk from farming is one way to diversify. Flood and flash flood destroys the agric field and crop most severely and in a short time. Indigenous knowledge, in different study areas, has proven to help contribute to the community’s ability to mitigate the impact of regular flood and flash flood events. In general, the indigenous knowledge of housing pattern reduces the vulnerability of floods. They plant different grass and plants in the river banks for the protection of community properties. People prepare dry fish and grow different vegetables around homesteads for reducing the vulnerability. These practices ensure food security in char areas.

55..11.. RREESSIILLIIEENNTT HHOOUUSSIINNGG SSTTRRUUCCTTUURREE AANNDD CCOOPPIINNGG People need to protect their homestead form flood and flash flood water. Their belongings, livestock, children, and all other assets are kept there. They local people mainly raise the plinth and make scaffold within the house and to keep safe their valuable livestock.

55..11..11.. RRAAIISSIINNGG PPLLIINNTTHH OOFF TTHHEE HHOOUUSSEE

The houses in the areas are always over flooded by the water, so the community people adopt ‘raising plinth’ mechanisms for the protection of homesteads. As many people live in the ‘char’ which is low-lying flood plain area, the houses are built on high lands. The height of the homesteads is generally 5-6 ft. high from the beds of the char land.

The method is easy and safer for emergent period for shelter, this type of houses are worth replicable in other places where vulnerable people become helpless at the time of hazard. Go-NGOs can help the poor people to make the structure.

55..11..22.. MMAAKKIINNGG SSCCAAFFFFOOLLDD IINN TTHHEE HHOOUUSSEE

During flood, the local people try to set up strong pillars and scaffold for their houses. This is a common preparation strategy of the people for upcoming flood. Both male and female were participating in this type of house repairing works. After flood they also borrow money for repairing their house.

The raw materials are locally


available and the method is easy and safer for emergent period for shelter. Go-NGOs can help the poor people to make the structure.

55..11..33.. RRAAIISSIINNGG PPLLIINNTTHH OOFF CCAATTTTLLEE HHOOUUSSEE ((GGOOAALL GGHHOORR))

Local people are more concern about their domestic animals, sometimes more than their own lives, for the domestic animals are main means of livelihood to many of them. This concern is only addressed by their innovative mechanism i.e. making scaffolds around some space somewhere in the homestead has greater implication to their socio-economic life.

Making scaffold by raising three feet high some space measuring (10 x 10 sq. ft) on homestead is one of the mechanisms for domestic animals and family properties from the flood. They put all the domestic properties together with the domestic pets on the raised scaffold when there is the flood. After the flood water recedes they use this place as plateau for spreading the creepers of gourd or pumpkin, bean or cucurbitaceous plants which give them another very valuable crop of vegetables.

Some selected space at a safer side of the homestead is being raised three feet high with mud from around and the place supplied with soil becomes a ditch which is again used as factory and storage of bio-fertilizer (locally called ‘vehr’). Bamboo poles are fixed vertically around the raised soil with a space and then the bamboo sheets are horizontally placed along the poles and tied up with the vertical bamboo poles. It takes only one day for raising the stead and another for the shed/roof (locally called ‘macha’). This is done mostly by the domestic labor or by hiring labor for short time. Flood also damages scaffold partially. Thus, every year, minor repairing is necessary which roughly requires one-third of the total cost of making a scaffold.

This is an innovative practice which would be a replica for other flood prone areas through which domestic animals and properties could be saved. The measure, they take against flood by raising scaffold at some corner of the homestead is innovate by the people themselves and is an attempt to meet the challenge of


the time as per their intelligence and need. Even at the time of gradual rise of flood water and if the farmer is not willing to be evacuated to the shelter, the measure may be of use.

The places which are visited by frequent floods and where there is the apprehension of sudden rise of the surge of water waves to engulf the habitation, this types of raised plateau like structure can be of immense value to save lives and properties. So these types of high mud structure may be built at such places which may be used for some cropping purpose normally and may be effectively used for life saving islands.

55..22.. CCOOPPIINNGG WWIITTHH FFOOOODD IINNSSEECCUURRIITTYY

During and after the flood, flash flood, food insecurity is a main concern for the locales. The people used scaffold as a safe place to preserve rice. They also preserved dry fish, chira, muri etc. and store fodder for domestic animal. Landless people could not store any food and they borrow money for buying food grains during and after flood.

55..22..11.. SSEEEEDD SSTTOORRAAGGEE

Seeds stored for years are not similar in crops and types. If farmers found new types of seeds in the market then, they use the seeds for cropping the same on as little as 20-25 decimal land to prove its efficacy in productivity. Later on, if found satisfactory, farmers store the seeds for adaptation in next season of farming. Storing the seeds of a particular variety depends on how much land or how many acres is going to be cultivated with the particular seed in the next sowing season.

55..22..11..11.. PPAADDDDYY GGRRAAIINN SSTTOORRAAGGEE

The farmers select the plants from which they are going to collect seeds even when they are in the field. Generally, well grown plants and their fruits at the top are selected. Then the farmers ensure their maturity in the field. They cut them and bind them in bundles separately and then dry. Before thrashing is done they isolate any other different paddy or variety among them. At thrashing the farmer dash the plants twice or thrice against some log so that only the fully matured seeds are separated and the seeds thus collected are dried carefully in the sun for two or three consecutive days each day for 5/6 hours. Whether the seeds are ready to be preserved or not is tested by putting them under the teeth and pressing by teeth. If they make heavy sound on cracking, the farmers understand that they are properly dried and they put them in the storing bags or pots.

The storing has many ways. Some store them in poly bags. Putting the seeds in the bags, they keep some space above the seeds and then close the open end carefully so that humidity or moisture cannot damage the seeds. Some put them in earthen pots clean and dry and then close the open mouth first with some stubs and then with some mud and then dry it in the sun. The selection of bags and pots is also done very carefully. They put them in dry and cold places where no insect or moisture can enter. They use neem leaves to protect the insects. Before sowing, they take the bags or the pots from the store and then take the seeds out and again dry them for some time in the sun.

55..22..11..22.. VVEEGGEETTAABBLLEE SSEEEEDD SSTTOORRAAGGEE

Gourd, pumpkin, sweet pumpkin, different leaves like spinach, red leave and palong shakh seeds are the main vegetables which the local people are cultivate and try to store the seeds.

The farmers select the maiden fruits of the plants for seeds and from all of the preliminary fruits the best one or two are earmarked for seeds and they never cut them until they are properly ripen and the creeping stems are dried up. In doing this, they remain watchful if there is any leakage or scratch around the body of the fruits. If this kind of defect is found they avoid it because they think that this may lead to rotting of the seeds. They have other signs of fruits being ripen. When fruits are ripened their bulk undergoes change in


color or the bulk becomes hard. Then they take them from the plants and cut the fruit to take the seeds out. The seeds are then put on a winnowing platter to dry them in the sun, the seeds are not washed because, as the farmers opine, washing may take away the nutrients of the seeds in it. The drying process continues for 5 to 6 days. The seeds can be stored for one year.

Eventually, dried seeds are kept in air-tight bottles. They seal the bottled by themselves. The bottles are placed in dry places. Every 15-20 days they relook at the bottles to check if there is any fungus in the seeds. When they find seeds are in a good shape then they go for drying them under the sun. The seeds of vegetables are very susceptible to many insects and fungus. So the farmers take extra precaution to avoid that damage.

As a nation, we are struggling to meet up our seed requirement for cultivation. For the purpose, these mechanisms will be a great opportunity regarding ensuring quality seed demand. GOs and NGOs can take initiative to ensure quality seeds and improved technology towards existing and potential areas so that it meets up nutritional food security.

55..22..22.. FFOOOODD PPRREESSEERRVVAATTIIOONN

Sidol (dry form of mixed vegetable and fish), dry fish and dry vegetable are some of traditional practices to food preservation for the difficult time. Below are the descriptions of some food preservation.

55..22..22..11.. SSIIDDOOLL

Sidol is very popular food among the local people. Dry small fishes, kachu (arum of any type) and turmeric are needed for preparing sidol. At first the arums are cut into small pieces to dry them under the sun placing them on their tin roofs or on a mat in the yard for 5-7 days. During this time the pulps of the arum remains a bit soft and are crushed in the dehki (a wooden device especially for husking rice). At the same time the dry small fishes bought from the market are also crushed into powder in the deki. These two powders are blended together with small amount of crushed turmeric thoroughly. These mixtures are again mixed in the dehki with little water to make it like paste. Then, the paste is made into small round shaped balls of 50gm. Then they are given flat shape before placing in the sun for drying up. They are dried in the sun for consecutive 4-5 days. A strong rope is pierced through every 4-5 of the balls to make them into wreath like series, keeping intervals of 3-4 inches separation in between and then tying the ends. These are again placed in the sun for 4-5 days more in order to make it crispy. These are called sidol and when they are quite dry, they are preserved in either plastic container or glass bottles.

They generally prepare this sidol in the winter. But throughout whole year one can prepare this sidol. Sidol can be preserved for about six months. These are to be dried in the sun strongly for 7-8 hours after every 10-15 days. Sidol is not an independent food but is an element to take with rice. It is taken with rice as sauce just like the curry to increase the taste.

Any body can join the food processing activity for consumption or subsidiary income even by selling them. But it is essential to remember that sidol can keep food quality for a short time. The fresh fish and the entire process need to do carefully. If these are processed and preserved correctly, sidol can help people at risk during the adversaries.

55..22..22..22.. DDRRYY FFIISSHH

When the prices of fish are cheaper or when women have some leftover fish, they try to store them by drying in the sun. ‘Chang’ is the local name given to the high scaffold prepared by bamboo for drying fishes


in the locality. In an open space of the house, where there are no trees around this ‘chang’ is prepared. This ensures that the fishes dry quickly under the sun. They use chatai (mat) over the ‘chang’. Sometimes around these scaffold and over are fitted old nets for the safety of the dry fishes and the nets are used to prevent crows or other birds snatching away the fishes.

At the beginning of the dry season, family members especially the children catch different fishes early in the morning from the nearby water bodies and rivers. Fishes like puti, tengra, chanda, etc are caught compara-tively in larger quantity in these regions. Generally, women and children do the work of preparing the fishes before drying. They clean and wash the fished accordingly. Later, drying process are done taking mostly by the women. The children help the women and the male members in supervision of the drying process. While drying if the sun goes down early and if there is possibility of rain, all the family members help to take the fishes inside home from the Chang. The fishes that are dried before 7-10 days are ready to preserve. Generally fishes dry up within 7 to 10 days and if the sun is extremely hot it takes 7 days for the fishes to dry completely. Otherwise, it takes some more days.

The entire process is easy and can be done at individual’s initiative. Although the natural elements are used, the lack of caution may cause harm to the general health of people when they consume such dry fishes. Economically the enterprise is beneficial. The elements are available in nature. Anybody can join the activity for consumption or subsidiary income. The dry fishes cannot retain food quality for long and hence it has no attraction to many.

55..22..33.. HHOOMMEESSTTEEAADD GGAARRDDEENNIINNGG

The places near homesteads were left alone and now people are growing vegetables there. As a source of household food, women and sometimes men spend some time for homestead gardening. From the Homestead gardening they try to fulfill the household’s food demand. In the flood time the plants died but the women store seeds as backup to grow again after the flood. The local people mainly produce vegeta-bles, spices and some fruits in these homestead gardens. They produce tomato, spinach (palong) lalshakh, puishakh, bendy, beans, karala, radish, cholashakh, jinge, lalmi kathoa, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, pepper, gourd, pumpkins, beans etc.

They generally select a space for gardening in the premises and protect the garden by raising fences around so that poultry or cattle heads cannot get in. They make small seedbed at a corner of the garden. When in the month of Katrik (Mid October-Mid November) dew begins to drop at the end of the night, then the red-vegetables and spinach seeds are sown. In Agrahayan (Mid November-Mid December), onion, garlic, tomato, cabbages are sown in the plots. At this time the plots are not needed to be ploughed and only making a slight hole inside the soil to make it productive. Sometimes they germinate the saplings of pepper, gourd etc in the beds and when they are about two/three inches long, they are shifted to the beds of the garden.

On the fencing of the garden around, puishakh, karala, jinge, and cucumber are sown along. These are creepers and are well placed along the fencing. They grow over the soil too but they like aerial growth. Along the fencing inside of the garden a row of bendy, patshakh, and pepper are also sown.

Besides, vegetables can be grown on scaffold in the house. Generally scaffolds are made with bamboo and branches of trees. Thus, over the scaffolds and roof of houses gourds, cucumber, sweet pumpkins are grown. Besides, papaya is also sown. Banana plants are sown but as banana plants cast shadow, they are planted at distance.

The entire process of homestead gardening does not involve any limitation. But the farmers who have no tube well or pond have no scope of making homestead gardening, because the initiative needs watering to


the plants. In that case they can, as it is highly profitable, form a consortium of a few families and set a tube well at some convenient location and participate in the process and can be benefited. Initiatives to dig ditches for household waste water storage can help for watering the plants. Attempts by the CBOs can be made to persuade local people to be involved with the coping.

Initiatives for women’s more involvement in homestead gardening can increase household income and women empowerment. If the technology of homestead gardening is improved, or, if the technology packages of improved varieties of different crops are made available to the women, the production will be surely bounteous and all will be encouraged to be involved in the practice.

The practice ensures the increase in the home economics, secures family nutritional status to maintain good health of the children of the family. For poor people this is source of income from the cottage and the lawn and is good a means to save themselves from the clutches of money lenders in the lean time of work.

55..33.. CCOOPPIINNGG WWIITTHH WWAATTEERR SSCCAARRCCIITTYY

People do not get fresh drinking water during flood as many tube wells remain under flood water. Conse-quently, people practice different strategies like storing and collecting water purifier, preserve water in a big container, collect fresh and safe drinking water from neighbors for coping to supplement their need of water. The community people mainly raise the plinths of the tube wells so that flood water cannot submerge them.

55..33..11.. RRAAIISSIINNGG TTUUBBEE WWEELLLL

Having the experience of tube wells being submerged on flood time, the villagers began to raise the base of tube wells high enough, not to be reached by the sudden rise of water level.As it cost money poorer households rarely do so. Generally a tube well of well off family give support the neighbor families who lack safe water source in proximity of their dwelling. The heads of these tube wells are generally raised 2 ft above the water level recorded previously, which was perhaps the most devastating of all such events during last several decades.

The goal of the initiative is to reduce the health vulnerability to natural hazards, especially flood. The initiative aims at ensuring supply of water for domestic purpose and drinking of people of the area during flood season.

During flood people can neither move to collect water nor can they get safe drinking water nearby. Moreo-ver, they remain logged by flood water which is polluted and spreads water borne diseases. At this crisis moment, this tube wells can provide safe drinking water. So it can be replicated for other flood prone area in Bangladesh. The density of such tube wells need be much but a few can serve the best at the time of emer-gency. A design integrating the convenience of the use in the lean time and that at the emergent period is critical may be designed by some innova-


tor. GO-NGO endeavor may come forward to solve the problem and make it easy for population at risk.

55..44.. CCOOPPIINNGG WWIITTHH EENNEERRGGYY UUSSEE AANNDD EEFFFFIICCIIEENNCCYY

Rural people use mud stoves for cooking and they regularly use pieces of dry wood, jute sticks, and shrubs, branches of trees, straws and the agricultural wastes collected at the harvesting time, after drying them in the sun and use as fuels. During flood, they face acute crisis of fuels. So, people of the area take initiatives to preserve fuels to deal with the crisis. Women of the area make movable matir chula/ hearth for using in the flood time.

55..44..11.. MMAAKKIINNGG MMOOVVAABBLLEE CCHHUULLAA ((AALLGGAA CCHHUULLAA))

Woman of every household prepare one or two movable Chulas/alga Chulas at times flood. These chulas are placed on scaffold for cooking. This movable Chula/ alga Chula are made by mud on plastic, plate or a piece of tin. Some time between the bengali months Magh to Chaitra is the suitable time to prepare the movable Chula/alga Chula due to availability of mud from the bed of dried pond or water bodies.

55..44..22.. FFUUEELL PPRREESSEERRVVAATTIIOONN

People of the study areas take many initiatives to preserve fuel. Among others, using cow dung as fuel is most popular. Most families of the areas use this technique to preserve fuels. These practices have been known to be followed from 4-5 generations in this area. The goal of the initiative is to reduce the vulnerability of the natural hazards, especially flood and flash flood. The initiative aims at ensuring the demand of fuels and to cope with the growing demand of it with the growth of population.

They select a place in the kitchen measur-ing about 6 ft in length and 4 ft in breadth and make a platform 2 ft above the floor of the shed for preserving the fuels. Above the platform they preserve the fuels like jute sticks, sticks with cow dung, dried shrubs and whatever they use for cooking in the time of crisis. They can accommo-date about 15-20 maunds of fuels on this platform. This amount of fuel is sufficient for a family of 5-6 members for two months.

To make the wooden made platform, they cut the bamboos accordingly. Then they fix the bamboo pieces in the earthen floor as poles and the numbers are generally 6 in all sides which has 2 ft inside the floor and 3 ft above it, 2 ft above which the cross wise horizontal pieces of bamboos are tied with the poles tightly and then a scaffold above the frame is made by fixing other sheets of bamboos cutting into two halves leng-thwise. Above this platform thus made there remains 1 ft length of the bamboo poles which help to protect the contents to be kept on it.


55..44..33.. PPRREESSEERRVVAATTIIOONN OOFF CCOOWW DDUUNNGG AASS FFUUEELL

Most of the farmers rear cows as domestic pets which are a good income in time of need and so the cow dung they obtain is used both as fuels and manures for their cultivation of land. So, in flood prone areas they use cow dung as fuel and preservation of the cow dung is an important issue to them. Using cow dung for cooking food and as manure has been a practice for a long time and the respondents could not exactly locate the time of its introduction in the area. However the practice is very popular in the area.

They make a separate place, generally a convenient sized ditch for preserving the fresh cow dung on daily basis. Then, the women of the family make soft mould of the cow dung at their leisure time by adding water and other ingredients to the dung in a separate ditch. They take a handful of the mould, make round of it like a ball and then throw against some flat vertical platform, especially against the walls of the houses and against the big trees and they remain there for ¾ days. If there is enough sunshine it is dried up for use. They collect them and make ready for use in the stoves and preserve by putting them in stacs and keeping them on the scaffold one after the other.

The shape of preserved cow dung varies; it can be ball shaped or linear which look like a two-three feet long jute stick. The entire exercise is done by the women folks of the farmers’ families. Sometimes, they take the help of the children. There is flood during Ashar to Aswin and they cannot prepare the dung for cooking purpose and they collect the cow dung for the manures.

The fuel needed for the bulk of the population for cooking purpose has not been considered as a huge problem yet. That is an area where attention must be given because of various genuine reasons. The straws, stubs, grasses, leaves of trees and other such stuffs that are used previously as fuel are now disappearing due to tremendous pressure exerted by the population explosion. The fuel preservation process and alternative fuel like dried cow dung need to be promoted in the rural area.

Time is up to give proper attention on the cooking fuels of the rural people and the government of a sovereign country is to extend attention on the issue, if not , the environment will be spoiled, agric produc-tivity will be lost and people will face extreme trouble of cooking food.

55..44..44.. MMAAKKIINNGG GGHHUUCCHHII

The local people have cows or buffalos in every house and cow dung is also available in every house. So, people have taken initiative to use ghuchi, a ball shaped moulds is prepared from the cow dung which is very popular among the women of this area. 10-12 ghuchi are sufficient to cook the food of 5-6 members. Now about 80-85% families of the area use ghuchi for cooking their food. Moreover, the ghuchis’ to be used in the tea stalls and hotels are available for buying in the area.

There is a hole in the yard for making ghuchi. The size of hole is 1 cubit deep, and 1.5 cubits in diameter. At first cow dung is left in the hole and then required quantity of water is given to the hole. Then 1 kg of dried up paddy (a grain having substance within) or stubs is/are mixed with every 50 kgs of cow dung. Stubs are easily and free of cost available. So people mix this stubs with cow dung. Then they mix them well with their hands or legs by pressing them from above. Making the mixture uniform with the contents they take them out little by little and make balls of them in hands and finally throw them against the wall of the house where they stick against the walls easily. After 10-15 days these balls dry up and assume the shapes like ball-shaped moulds.

The preparation of the product ghuchi is easy and they can do themselves. It is environment friendly and does not cost them anything; rather they can save money from the exercise by meeting the demand of fuels otherwise. The availability of wooden fuel has no guarantee because, this is a drought prone area and


productions and plants are limited. So people have security to using ghuchi in all the cooking purposes. The people need to have cows in there home for making the ghuchi. Otherwise, they have to collect from other people. Ghuchi can be a source of income for female members of the low income household.

The fuel needed for the bulk of the population for household purpose has not been considered as a huge problem yet. That is an area where attention must be given because of various genuine reasons. The straws, stubs, grasses, leaves of trees and other such stuffs that are used previously as fuel are now disappear due to various purpose. The alternative fuel like ghuci needed to promote in the rural area. Different project for reach the enterprise to remote people need to develop by the Govt. and non- Govt. organizations.

55..55.. OOPPTTIIMMIIZZIINNGG PPRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN PPRROOVVIISSOO AANNDD CCOOPPIINNGG

People grow many food grains like kaon, maize, pera, etc in different fallow and pocket lands and plants of different vegetables around homesteads for reducing the vulnerability. These practices ensure food security of people in the areas concerned. The community people also practice different alternative practices such as cultivation of ground nuts, sugarcanes, onions, banana etc. These practices provide maximum utilization of lands with maximum economic returns. These good community practices of coping are elaborated in the foregoing discussions.

55..55..11.. KKAAOONN

Kaon is a food grain which can be use as rice or with rice. Occasionally, this crop used as an ingredient of sweet dish. The cultivation period begins from the month of Falgun (mid February to mid March). For the purpose, at first the land is given irrigation. After irrigation the land is ploughed and the seeds are scattered over the plot at one kg per plot of one bigha. Saplings come out after 3-4 days of the sowing and all saplings are germinated within 6-7 days. The first time seed scattering and cultivation needs two laborers. After two days of the sowing the plot is to be given second trip of irrigation and weeding. Weeding helps to drive out the unwanted plants and shrubs. Two labors are to be employed. The crops are harvested in the month of of Jyaisthya (mid May-mid June) and two labors are employed for cutting and two are for thrash-ing.

Although the production is not satisfactory comparing labor and capital employed, still people adopt this, because they get employment and some crops which help them as auxiliary to the staple food. This reduces the pressure on the main food items. More over the land use is important, which prepares the sandy and fallow lands for normal agric activities.

As non-traditional crop, Kaon needs to be investigated for booming its productivity and hence scientific R&D should be conducted at the field level for extension and wide cultivation.

55..55..22.. PPEERRAA

The goal of pera cultivation is to reduce the vulnerability of natural hazards, especially sand deposition due to flood. The pera cultivation initiative aims at ensuring food security,, increasing their land productivity with maximum economic profitability by utilization of minimum fertility level of soil.

The selected soil is irrigated before plowing. Then seeds are scattered in the month of Kartik (mid October-mid November). After 3-4 days of sowing the seeds, the saplings begin to grow and the germination is completed within 6-7 days. After 15-20 days, the plot is given weeding and irrigation. Harvesting starts from the next Chaitra (mid March-mid April). Thrashing is necessary to separate grains from the stalk of the plants.


The cultivation is easy and all the required materials are easily available. It is short term crop and can grow in char lands with minimum fertility of soil, care, capital and labor. Storage time is long and farmers themselves can store and use this food during difficult situation. The local people take it as alternative food. Grinded Pera is eaten like flour with molasses or salt and pepper together.

This nontraditional crop is very much adaptive to the changing soil condition. As Bangladesh is severely food deficit, the production of Pera may be a good alternative to staple food like rice or flour and can stand appreciably for food security of people at risk. Moreover, the recurrent deposition of sands decreases the volume of cultivable paddy fields and these may be utilized by cultivating Pera.

It is imperative to establish law and order situation very quickly in char areas by state agencies by improv-ing the policy for promotion of pera cultivation, which has the potential for ensuring food security. Modern technology along with high-yielding seeds of Pera can increase productivity at char areas and other areas having same ecological condition in Bangladesh. GOs and NGOs can come forward for assisting local farmers for the practice.

55..55..33.. MMUUSSHHUURRII KKAALLAAII

Change of soil condition enforced the farmer to shift from traditional crops to mushuri kalai (lentil or pulse) which is locally called daal. Lentil (Lens culinaris) is a bushy annual plant grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 15 inches and the seeds grow in pods, usually with a number of seeds in each capsule. The pulse is mostly preferred by the Bengali community and it contains high protein but it is comparatively cheaper than animal protein. Mushuri kalai is cultivated in organized manner here since 2005-2006. Now most of the farmers cultivate mushuri kalai as an alternative to livelihood option.

To cultivate mushuri kalai, at first a field has to be selected based on the type of the soil. It grows well in sandy fields, especially in one foot layer of sand. The field has to be ploughed thrice before sowing. The alluvial deposit beneath the sand does not come up after being ploughed. The plowing is done at the beginning of the Bengali month of Aswin (mid September-mid October). After the first two ploughs, necessary fertilizers are applied in the fields. Afterwards the field is again ploughed for the last time so that the fertilizer mixes up well with the soil. Immediate after the plowing, the seeds are sown in the field. The saplings start to grow within three days of sowing the seeds and within seven days all the saplings come out. The field is to weed within 20-25 days. While weeding the field, the soil is also loosened. When the saplings are about 25-30 days old, special care has to be taken to keep the plants healthy. Afterwards the farmers have nothing more to do until the crop is ready for harvesting.

The crop is harvested at the end of Agrahayan (Mid November-Mid December). The harvesting crop is left out in the sun for 3-4 days to dry. Then the plants are thrashed to get the pulse from the capsules of the plants. Cows are used for thrashing.

Most of the farmers sell all the crops right after harvesting. Some of them store part of the harvest to get higher price at high demand but not for preserving seeds. Because, germination of these seeds are not good and seeds are available and low-priced in the local market. Moreover, seed preservation process is time consuming but not cost effective. Still some careful farmers of the area have reported to have pre-served seeds to avoid hassle during the season of sowing.

As an area of utterly food deficit, our struggle is for increasing the production of food ingredients and thereby to enhance our daily protein requirement. The cultivation of mushuri kalai opens up a great opportunity for helping us. At the same time land utilization may bring a great benefit in the food sector of the country. So it can be replicated for other areas in Bangladesh.


It is imperative to establish law and order situation very quickly in char areas by state agencies by improv-ing the policy. Go-NGO should come forward for rapid extension of the cultivation in Bangladesh.

55..55..44.. TTRRAADDIITTIIOONNAALL IIRRRRIIGGAATTIIOONN TTEECCHHNNIIQQUUEE -- WWEELLLL// CCHHUUAAAA

To grow crops in char land, farmers have to suffer a lot for irrigation. So, most of the farmers try to grow crops near the river bank and cannel. To irrigate the crop land some of the poor farmer use a local irrigation system called “Chuaa ” or well.

‘Chuaa’ or “well” irrigation system: At the first stage the farmer dig a 3-4 feet deep hole in a wet-sandy (bele-dowash) land near their agricultural field. Gradually, the holes filled with water and the farmers collect water by blanket and put it to their agricultural field. Within 5-7 days they surrounded the hole by bamboo-fence and again dig the hole 7-8 feet. In this way they made a full “Chuaa” and use it for irrigation as long as it supplies water.

55..55..55.. TTOOLLAA

Rich farmer use pond water for irrigation. They use long bamboo and blanket to collect water from the pond. Local people called this system “Tola”. They tied the blanket on the edge of a long bamboo and use the bamboo as a handle. Then they tied the edge of the bamboo with another one which works as a pillar. They keep pressure on handle-bamboo to sink the blanket into the water and shift water from the pond to agricultural land by.

55..55..66.. OORRGGAANNIICC MMAANNUURREE

The goal of this organic manure is to increase fertility of cultivable land and meet the demand of fertilizer due to the unavailability of inorganic fertilizer. The aim is to increase the productivity of the soil for increas-ing the yields due to pressure on food stuffs with the rapid growth of population.

For preserving the cow dung, a hole is dug at about 6 ft in length, 5 ft in breadth and 3 ft in depth nearer to the cowshed. The selected place is comparatively higher than the surrounding land so that water could not get into the ditch easily. A roof is necessary above the ditch, because there is frequent rainfall. Within two months the ditch can be filled with cow dung of two cows of a family. In addition, solid waste including vegetable wastes, kitchen rubbishes, ashes of the stoves, straws, and even the filthy things from animal leavings etc are also put into the ditch. All the composts are gradually decomposed to turn into organic manure. Afterwards the manure is carried to the plots and is kept in heaps and finally before plowing are scattered over the plots. There is no definite rule for giving the cow dung manures to the lands. Local farmers reported that these are just scattered by them and then plough the land when these are mixed with soil.

The local farmers reported that the raw materials are easily collected from the farm as a byproduct of dairy including livestock and different residual of daily farm and kitchen activities, and the compost is naturally decomposed. This does not require any cost; only a little domestic labor is enough to run the venture for collection of cow dung and other materials. This type of nutrient source is free from toxicity which synthesis fertilizer accompanies. Cow dung is such manure which can be used for all types of vegetative production. There is common saying, “the more you scatter (organic manure), the more you harvest (crop)” implies efficacy of organic manure and so local people consider the cow dung manure is more effective than the chemical fertilizers. Cow dung does not have any adverse action on the land soil. Now scientists proved that the organic manure is capable of fixing up micronutrient in soil without disturbing the flora & fauna composition in the ecology of the soil and also capable of improving soil structure including nutritional status as well as soil texture accompanying increase of microbial population in the soil.


This organic manure has been considered to be potential for crop production. At the time of fertilizer crisis and price hike of inorganic manure, organic manure is an only alternative; the manure has no side effect like the inorganic manures. It is soil friendly and helps increase soil fertility.

Go-NGOs should create awareness among the farmers for increasingly using these fertilizers instead of inorganic manures. The agric extension workers should be all out about the convincing the farmers about its long term effect and efficacy.

55..55..77.. GGRROOUUNNDD NNUUTT

Lands, generally sandy ones with 1 or 1.5 feet sandy layer are selected for peanut plantation. Then the land is ploughed one time at the beginning of the month Agrahayan (mid August-mid September). After that farmers use Bhamor technique (Bhamor means making holes 6/7 inch deep and 1 foot apart in the land and then covering it with peanut seeds in the soil. Source: Informal discussion). Once the Bhamor is done, it is then ready for planting seeds.

Seed preparation is very important for groundnut cultivation. The most important work is to peel off the skin carefully. It takes a lot of concentration. One needs to be careful so that the pink cover of the nut seed interior is not damaged. If it is damaged, the seed does not germinate. Since the work needs to be carefully done, it takes pretty long time.

Seeds are sown in the holes. After sowing seeds the hole is covered with soil so that the seed can draw necessary nutrition from soil. As a result, young plant comes out of the seed within 8-10 days. Its saplings come out of the soil on the 7th day and takes full shape within 10 days. Usually fertilizer and water is not needed during the nut plantation.

Normally the nuts are ripe by Falgun (mid November-mid December). Farmers start picking nuts at the end of Falgun (mid November-mid December). Rain plays an important role in picking nuts. If it rains heavily during Falgun (mid November-mid December) groundnuts should be picked as soon as possible. Otherwise


new plant will start to grow from the nuts. The laborers pick the nuts and carry home. The hard work is not over yet. Nuts are separated from the branches after bringing home. In this case nut clusters (all the nuts together in a branch is called cluster) are separated from the branches by cutting out the roots from the trees. Laborers are needed to root out trees. Finally, the groundnuts are dried in the sun for 5-6 days and then they are sold.

Nut cultivation is a short term crop which does not need much care, capital and labor. Economically nut is a cost-effective crop. Because of the market demand, the harvest is increasing day by day. Ground nut plantation contributes influential part in the local economy because the sandy land is unproductive for other crops and as the area has no alternatives, people become encouraged to nut cultivation. Usually the rate of seed damage is very low. The multifarious uses of nuts, of course, help decrease pressure upon staple foods and hence enhance food security. The edible oil that is produced from the nuts are nationally valuable as this can save our foreign currency for importing edible oil and even it has potential, if grown plentifully, of exporting outside. More over the nut plants can be used as cow fodder and fuel.

Bangladesh has vast char and riverine lands and most of them are cultivable but remain fallow due to lack of the application of appropriate seeds and saplings. If ground nut cultivation is introduced in the char lands the community people will get much incentive by having enough crops, the practice will no doubt increase productivity and land utility will be enhanced.

If the technology of cultivation is modernized the production efficiency can be raised sufficiently and the farmers will get much incentive. GO-NGO efforts are essential for this purpose.

55..55..88.. MMAAIIZZEE

Good maize production in the soil encouraged many of them to cultivate it as an alternative to the traditional crops. This is a simple history of maize production in the areas around. Change of soil condition enforced farmers of the areas to shift from traditional crops to maize/bhutta (Zea mays), a cereal crop, belongs to the Graminae family and order is Cyperales. It is cultivated to a limited extent in Kharif and Rabi seasons. A variety of food items can be prepared from maize. In fact, it can be used in the same way as rice and wheat. It is also used as a raw material in different industries for production of starch, asbestos board, animal feed, cosmetics, biscuits, horlics, cornflex, confectioneries, edible oil etc. Acetic acid and alcohol are also manufactured from maize.

Maize is such a corn that can be cultivated throughout the year. The cultivation process starts from plowing the soil; fertilizer is used before the plowing. Then one foot gap lines are drawn for sowing seeds with the help of traditional ploughs, farmers of this area borrow ploughs from each other. ½ foot deep holes are made in every one foot gap in each row. 2-3 seeds are sowed in each hole. After one month of sowing when the young plants grow 8 to 10 inches long, laborers bring soil from both the sides of the Null (Null means taking soil from the inside of two lines and putting them at the bottom of the plants) and deposit at the bottom of the plants. When the plants are 1-1 ½ month old, irrigation is done as to increase moisture content of the soil. Afterwards weeding is done when fertilizer including pesticides is given. After 2 months corns starts growing in cluster. Finally the corn is harvested after 3 -3 ½ months of sowing. After collecting corn from the field, corns are separated from each cluster and are dried up about 2-3 days under sun. This processing and preservation works is usually done at domestic level. Finally the dried plants are used as fuel.

The soil which is not suitable enough to produce rice is very much suitable for maize cultivation. The maize production is comparatively higher than the usual production of rice. Maize is cultivated round the year. One good season is Kartik to Magh (mid October to mid February) and another is Magh to Chaitro (mid February


to mid April). The production technique is simple and one could expect harvest within a very short time. The cultivation does not require intensive irrigation and labor. In these areas this practice has already become popular and proved to be viable due mainly to food crisis.

Maize cultivation is, no doubt, profitable; but in our place people uses this practice in the lands where normal agric products do not grow or cannot be grown. Lands of this area are like sandy lands or pocket lands which are very small for otherwise cultivation. The products help people as food during bad days. Maize can be taken in many different ways as food and its preparation is simple. Now a day the cultivation seems to have drawn the attention of agric community and different hybrid varieties are available.

The farmers at the far reaching areas should be encouraged for its extension so that fallow lands might be brought under cultivation for production of food items. So the method in its improved form may be replicated in areas where lands are idle and unproductive.

55..55..99.. SSUUGGAARR CCAANNEE

Change of soil condition enforced the farmer to shift from traditional crops to sugarcane; a tall tropical annual plant, has significantly jointed stalks, each bearing two ranks of sword-shaped but gracefully arching leaves. Locally sugarcane is known as Akh.. At present most of the farmers are cultivating sugarcane. The sugarcanes are crushed to extract juice for crystallizing sugar or gur. This has become popular as sugar-cane cultivation offers integrated farming facilities along with short term mustards, pepper, lentils, brinjals and other pulses.

The cultivation starts from the month of Bhadra to Aswin (Mid August to Mid October) and is harvested in the months of next Kartik (Mid October-Mid November) of the following year. It is a perennial crop and is produced in both the seasons. Loamy soil of the char land is suitable for the production of sugar cane. Saplings, power tiller, fertilizers (phosphate, potash), irrigation, labor etc are also required for this cultiva-tion.

After plough the soil and necessary fertilizers scattering in the field, sapling can be plant. Before planting the saplings (sapling is collected from mother sugarcane by cutting bottom edge at about 10 inches long), long rows (locally termed as bhamar) is made with a relative depth by a traditional ploughing equipment and the sapling is putting down into the soil at a distance 1.5 to 2 ft according to the row. Each piece of sapling produces at least 2/3 bud from which another new sugarcane grows, if water is given properly. Weeding including shaking the dead leaves is usually done when the cane grows at about 5 ft long which facilitates quality production. Again irrigation is necessary at the month of Jyostya (mid May-mid June), if no rainfall occurs. Finally insecticide is given at the month of Agrahayan (mid Nov-mid Dec) to prevent attack of termites. Afterwards 5 to 7 canes are bound together with ropes or with the leaves of the plants themselves so that the long cane plants are not uprooted or bent down by the blow of the stormy wind at rough weather. The sugarcane is harvested after one year at the next Kartik month (Mid Oct-Mid Nov).

In the sugarcane plot different crops like pepper, pulse, beans, lentils etc and some tubers crops can be cultivated as integrated practice. Notable is the fact that sugarcane cultivation is generally done for consecutive three years, because the cultivation of the first year follows consecutively another two years with the same seed plants, as when the first harvest is cut the roots give out plants which grow one after the other. This is profitable venture, as the second and third time they are not to plant. So, just one harvest is not profitable for the cultivators.

The sugarcane cultivation can be replicated for other char areas of Bangladesh because it utilizes minimum fertility soil of char lands with the maximum economic return by using integrated farming.


Mill authority should think about the price of sugarcane, otherwise farmers may become disinterested and reluctant to cultivate the sugarcane. The govt. should fix the price. There is an urgent need of law and order as well as char land reform policy. Otherwise poor and powerless farmers never get access to the new char lands. GO-NGOs should come forward to give credit to the the poor farmers for this cultivation.

55..55..1100.. OONNIIOONN

The goal of onion cultivation is to reduce the vulnerability of natural hazards, especially sand deposition due to flood and riverbank erosion. The onion cultivation initiative aims at ensuring commonly used spice, increasing the land productivity with maximum economic profitability by utilization of minimum fertility level of soil in char land. The cultivation starts from the end of Poush to the beginning of Magh (mid December to mid February) and harvesting starts at the end of Falgoon to Chaitrya (mid February to mid April). During the period the char land becomes dry, a favorable condition for onion cultivation.

The plot is ploughed to blend top sandy soil with the blackish soil below. Then the land is given fertilizer and leveled and finally left for a few days. Again the plot is ploughed and leveled and the land is ready for sowing the seeds. The well dried seeds are soaked in water at about 2-3 hours and it is taken out. Then the wet seeds are wrapped up with cloth and hung up to remove water from the seeds. After 4-5 hours when water is completely removed, it is scattered over the plot and soil is leveled. Generally farmers scatter the seeds in the morning. Then sand is given on the surface of the plot at about 0.25 inches thick in order to cover the seeds under the soil.

After 5-7 days saplings come out from the seeds. Then after about 20 days onion plants grow 3-4 inches long, weeding is done and the first irrigation is given to the land. This irrigation has a technique and is done like sprinkling by putting the fingers in the opening of the pipe so that the water comes out in jets lightly. The farmers are aware that water should not stand in the plot which might be harmful to the plants. Along with this, 7 kg of Urea is given to the plots. After about 20 days, irrigation, as done earlier, is given and further 5 kg urea is given to the plot.

Onion is harvested at the end of Falgoon (mid February-mid March) to the middle of Choitrya (mid March-mid April). After harvesting the onion is scattered over the plot and are left for two days for drying of the leaves. During this time if the plot is away from the farmer’s house, one has to watch over there continuous-ly to prevent stealing. Harvesting is done on fare weather day to avoid rainfall which might rot the product in the field.

The cultivation process is simple. The harvest could be done within a very short duration. The cultivation starts from the end of Poush to the beginning of Magh (mid December to mid February) and harvests at the end of Falgoon to Chaitrya (mid February to mid April). The cultivation of onion brings cash money for the farmers and so they are interested for this practice. The local farmers of this area are very much conscious and concerned with onion cultivation. Rapid change of soil condition due to flood does not allow every year to have good produce. The local farmers follow the traditional cultivation method. For this reason productivi-ty is not very satisfactory. The local farmers do not know how to process the harvests and store the crop properly. So they sell to the middlemen and do not get the real benefit of the crop.

Onion cultivation has a great prospect in Bangladesh as there are huge char lands which are on the increase day by day due to land reclamation by the sea and rivers and alluvium deposition by the river current. These chars are suitable for onion cultivation and hence our farmers use the practice of onion cultivation.

Introduction of modern technology of cultivation, processing and storing is essential and the farmers are to be trained and motivated to be acquainted with these for maximum benefit. Also high yielding varieties of


seeds should be introduced to the farmers. In this regards, Go-NGO collaboration and farmers facilitation is urgently needed.

55..55..1111.. BBAANNAANNAA

The areas are char lands which are vulnerable to flood, river bank erosion and other natural hazards. These hazards are reducing people of the villages landless and ultra-poor. The vulnerable people adopt many alternative strategies for earning their livelihood, of which the cultivation of banana being one of them.

The farmers of the chars practice banana cultivation around their homesteads. Banana is richer than any other fruits and has multiple uses. The char dwellers raise banana garden as safety wall around, because banana plants are water tolerant owing to having clustered roots which spread around parallel to the ground and remain attached to the soil and hence is effective in preventing soil erosion. Moreover they use the plants as cow fodder. A plant give fruit only once and then the plant is cut to harvest the fruit and the kernel inside is used as curry and the remaining portion is used as fodder. The left over part of the tree is easily degradable within a few days. The green leaves are used as plates to serve people with food during mass festival by the Hindu community. Even the degradable part is also used to retain water in the land. It Is not that people use the ripe banana, the green banana also is used as good curry. The ripe banana is used in preparing many sweet meats and jelly. The banana plants find a very important use in making raft used as life saving vehicle at the time of floods. People collect 4-5 plants of 8-10 ft long and pierce through a stick to get together and then bind them with rope so that the combination cannot get loose and then use this as vehicle for their movement, carrying essentials to safe places, and even carry their cattle sheep to a safer high land or even they can reside on the raft for some days together.

Although banana plants can be planted throughout the year, the people of the areas prefer to plant them at the beginning of the rainy season. Once the saplings are planted no care is necessary for their growth. Generally the farmers together with their children and ladies plant the saplings and the saplings are also not to buy. They can be collected from the old plants or from the neighbors at free of cost. The plants are


rapidly growing and give fruits within the same year of planting.

The cultivation is not planned on lands but on the places around the homesteads. Even when a farmer does for raising a new house at a place he plants banana first and is a culture in this area. Raising the soil of a certain area and then planting banana is a sign of raising as new house.

The banana trees at the age of one year give a clustered conical flower and after 4-5 months the fruits are ripen. Then the farmers harvest the fruits to sell in the market. The banana is economically profitable and the price of the crop fluctuates at different time of the year. Generally it is costly in the winter. Banana is much richer in food nutrients than any other fruits and has multiple uses.

The fallow lands around homesteads, roadside and especially in the newly formed char lands banana cultivation is the most beneficial .The southern coastal area of Bangladesh, where char formation is very common may be used for banana cultivation to protect soil effectively at the maximum economic benefit. So, for replication of the practice, should be strongly encouraged among individuals and community people for intensive banana cultivation in these areas.

The cultivation method of banana is primitive and could not get attention of the modern technology in our country. But the method of harvesting of fruits is horrible. More than fifty percent of the economic value is lost due to mishandling of the banana fruits by the inexperienced farmers and the carriers. So this aspect should be seriously cared by all authorities, the Government and NGOs, putting more research and improved technology should be adopted. Farmers should be trained properly to process the fruits they produce to get maximum benefit from them.

55..55..1122.. BBHHEENNDDAA CCUULLTTIIVVAATTIIOONN

Due to flood and river bank erosion people of the above mentioned areas are becoming landless and ultra-poor. These vulnerable people adopt many alternatives for earning their livelihood, making oil from bhenda plants being one of the many. The area grows naturally a kind of creepers locally called bhenda plants (one


kind of plants that grow 8-10 ft long and have many branches but the branches are little) which have much medicinal value. Bhenda has been grown naturally in these areas from over decades.

Bhendas are grown naturally in these areas. When the trees are matured they give out flowers, then the flowers are grown to fruits after a few days and when the fruits are matured and are ripen, farmers collect them. Farmers separate these seeds from the trees and dry them. Thus, collecting the dried seeds, they are again treated to more heat to dry them more strongly. Then they are broken into powder by treating them under dheki. Then they mix about 2 kg powder of bender fruits with 2.5 kg of water and boil for 2 to three hours on the furnace when some oily fluid appears on the surface of water. They separate the oily liquid from the mixture and this separated oil again is heated for an hour to ensure the removal of water from it. Thus they prepare the bender oil 375 gm from two kg of bhenda seeds and put it in to bottle.

This bhenda oil is used as a medicine for many dermatological diseases that appear at the time of flood. Besides this is a good medicine for use externally against headache and it has no side effect like other allopathic products. The farmers prepare the oil and sell by themselves at the time or immediately after the flood when people suffer from itching due to infections from flood water. The preparation of bhenda oil is a good example of extraction of herbal medicine from the indigenous plants and it indicates and encourages people to search in to some other plants for extracting skin product. The bhenda oil extraction and use against dermatological ailments is absolutely harmless, environment friendly and efficacious and also economically profitable for people at risk.

Bhenda oil as a medicinal product is used for the treatment of many dermatological diseases at the time of flood and also use against headache and does not have any side effects. Now-a-days the scientists in the developed laboratories are also looking for these plants. So the cultivation needs to be encouraged for its extension in other areas of Bangladesh.

This medicinal plant should be seriously cared by any authorities, the Govt. and NGOs. It needs more research and improved technology. NGOs can come forward to spread this cultivation by providing seeds and technology.

55..55..1133.. FFIISSHH CCOOLLLLEECCTTIIOONN

The goal of fish collection is to reduce the vulnerability of flood. The fish collection initiative aims at ensuring livelihood security, to utilize natural elements of water resources. The aim is to increase the capability of the people at risk.

Due to the changed environment, the local people collect fishes with the help of push nets, charu (a kind of box, which is made by bamboo and date palm root, it is 1-½ -2 cubit high, and its width is 1 ½ to 2 cubits). They also catch fishes by ‘Komar deya’ (komar deya, a Bengali term, meaning ‘an artificial shelter erected by heaping straws or branches of trees in a stagnant or standing water either in a water body (beel) or in an area of a river where water is relatively standing). In the Komar they put some food items of fishes repeat-edly for some days after and fishes love this spot to eat idly and to stay safely. When the farmers infer that there is maximum concentration of fishes, they encircle around with nets and remove the straws and branches of trees they put earlier and catch the fishes with different tools.

Komar Deya: The farmers make a bundle of 4/5 branches of trees like tamarind, acacia, ‘jiel, khoi’ etc which have dense branches and leaves are used for ‘komar deya’ in which fishes consider to be secured, safe and comfortable and so they throng under such shelter and they require 10 to 15 such bundles for a ‘komar’. There is another reason and that is the leaves of the trees, as time passes on, begin to rot and planktons grow, which are good food of fishes. So they use such trees and their branches for preparation of ‘komar’ in a water body. The farmers insert 4/6 bamboo poles at regular distances in the soil below and tie


them with nylon ropes and the bundles of tree branches are placed inside the area and tie them also with the poles so that they are not displaced and stay in position. The land ownership does not stand on their way, because the water logging is a permanent phenomenon here and they cannot use the land any way. At the time of catching fishes from the komar, they encircle the entire area by a narrow net so that the fishes can not go out of the area. Then they take out the bundles of branches and straws out of water. The net encircling the komar is fitted around in such a way that the lower end is fixed inside the soil below.

Fish Collection through Charu: 45-50 feet bamboo is used for making a charu. Two kinds of charus are made by one bamboo. 4-5 charus can be made from it if sticks are put closed together and if sticks are not used closely then 5-6 Charu can be made. Condensed charu is used for catching small fish and uncon-densed charu is used for big fish. Charu is mainly used with one type of fence, which is named pata in local language. Charus are kept in from one side to other side. A charu is placed in the lower portion of pata or fence. The front side of a charu is kept at the same level through which fish get in and backside of “charu” is kept at the back portion of Pata. A pata can be used for three seasons which means 3x6=18 months, if it is used continuously. People use pata in rainy season (Ashar to Agrahayan) because fishes are abundantly available in these six months. Then they keep it at a corner of their house with much care because charu and pata are damaged by salt and moisture. On the other hand a charu may be damaged if it is used for one and a half or two months. Even a charu may be damaged within one or two days if big fish enter into it because big fishes might crack the charu.

The people have adopted this practice as a source of livelihood as it is easy to catch fish from the water bodies, the elements are available in the environment, and above all they have not to employ much of their time and energy for the livelihood. Government and non-government organizations may come forward to take appropriate program to utilize the water bodies of other areas. They may also take initiative to reduce water pollution. The fisheries experts are required to work in these nontraditional areas where fishes can be caught on large scale.

55..66.. CCOOPPIINNGG AANNDD CCOOMMMMUUNNIITTYY RREESSIILLIIEENNCCEE

55..66..11.. BBRRIIDDGGEE OOVVEERR TTHHEE WWAATTEERR BBOODDIIEESS

The environment in the natun Bandar area is completely different from that of the plain lands which makes people accustomed to adopting different mechanisms for making life bearable. Jinjiram River has divided the area from the main land. For the purpose of better physical communi-cation, the people of the area built a bamboo bridge on the river.


Neighboring villages in this area are located at far distances. Thus; physical mobility for the villagers is difficult. They mostly walk in absence of modern means of transportation. The low is as promising for their livelihood as they are dangerous at the time of heavy rainfall. Along the lows there are canals like passes for drainages of rain water and when there is heavy rainfall they turn an ugly shape by having the strong current of water. This initiative aims at ensuring the communication and transport during the hazardous situation and after the event.

They collected bamboo for poles and bamboo mat (chatai), ropes and other things they needed for making the shako were collected from the community people as donations. Then they go for raising the shako by laying the long bamboo crosswise the canal and fix ropes at the two ends on the banks at a height with trees on the banks so that they can catch the ropes to balance their weight while crossing over the sako. The bamboo is again tied with poles with ropes strongly so that it cannot tilt when they are on the shako.

This shako is made of all traditional materials and, the collection of volunteer laborers from among the members of the area or area who join willingly because they use the shako which is environment friendly.

The overcoming of small barriers in confined areas of char teach people to innovate solution. Sako is a traditional barrier overcoming mechanism both in the char and plane lands, the idea of which taught people of constructing the so-called permanent bridges on greater barriers.

55..66..22.. PPIILLLLIINNGG WWIITTHH BBAAMMBBOOOO TTOO PPRROOTTEECCTT TTHHEE RROOAADD

To cope with flood, the community people along with the local union council have taken some initiatives. One of these initiatives is bamboo pilling in the river during flood. The volunteers collect bamboo from the local people. The other materials are Iron pin (parek) and Iron wire.

Firstly, they cut the bamboo into 10 to 15 feet height and set it as pillar in opposite direction of tremendous tidal in the turning side of the river. They make some fences by bamboo with 10 to 15 feet height. Then they set it with bamboo pillar and fetch with iron wire.

The authority deploys some poor man as paid laborer. The volunteer of this organization also engage in doing this job. They set this bamboo pilling so that the extreme tidal cannot rush into the village and also can protect the village from river bank erosion. Herbal

‘United we stand’ is the axiom and that is seen in the case we study here. This is urgently needed for our society infested with so many problems. If this example of the local people is followed by the people of other places, in spite of looking to the government, almost all problems may solve and the country as whole will certainly be self dependent. The policy makers, in making each and every developmental program, can follow the principle of infusing self help motto so that people may learn how to rely on themselves. They believe that the pilling is their ultimate hope of emancipation from hunger. The government reinforcement would make their pilling more sustainable, they believe.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR SSIIXX LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODDSS,, TTOOLLEERRAANNCCEE TTHHRREESSHHOOLLDD AANNDD RREESSIILLIIEENNCCEE

The study identifies, among others, two ‘essential elements’ or ‘critical requirements’ of agricultural production across the study regions are freedom from disasters and diseases. Tolerance threshold levels to these critical events, however, vary from place to place and across different actors. Differences in the endowment base, access to productive resources and exchange entitlements elicit different tolerance threshold levels for the rural households in Bangladesh. Some social groups are inherently more suscepti-ble to hazards than others. Consequently, it is hard to explore threshold levels for different actors under these varied situations. Associated with the diverse nature of risk perceptions by different social groups, perceptions on threshold levels are also felt to be diverse among different actors. The poor, the less poor, the medium and women have different perspectives on upper tolerance limits for crop losses.

66..11.. LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS OOFF RRUURRAALL HHOOUUSSEEHHOOLLDDSS

The local people are mainly involved with food grain, especially paddy and cash crop e.i. tobacco (in Hatibandha and Aditmari), jute, sugar cane (kushal) cultivation. This cultivation system is mainly depending on different soil types. The river side lands are sandy which are suitable for groundnuts, maize, kalai,


tobacco etc. But the main land consist of loam soil where paddy, jute, sugar cane are grown well. Due to having long duration of these crops, people shift to different local crops (kaon, pera, kalai etc) cultivation which are required short time to mature. Two types of paddy (Boro, Aman) are cultivated here through the all year round. Rabi crop cultivation is grown in post flood season (Kartik to Baishakh). Every year, main agric field of the study areas is gone under flood water and destroy aman paddy, seedling and jute. So, the local people have to take risk at that time. The landowner can again invest money to cultivate different crops in post flood season but the marginal farmers try to cope with the situation by cultivating short term crops which require relatively low investment.

The land less people are involve in agric labor work. They also work as rickshaw puller and van puller. After flood, they mainly migrate to nearer districts. Bikrampur (Munshiganj), Tangail, Kaliakair, Jamalpur, Mymensingh are some of the districts where they migrate after flood. They work mainly as agric labor as well as rickshaw puller, mason helper, garments worker. Some of the marginal farmers also migrate to earn extra money in the jute mill and agric field of Bikrampur, Tangail, Kaliakair.

66..22.. FFOOOODD SSEECCUURRIITTYY:: TTHHEE CCOORREE CCOONNCCEERRNNSS OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTAABBIILLIITTYY

66..22..11.. TTHHEE LLEESSSS PPOOOORR OORR MMIIDDDDLLEE FFAARRMMEERRSS’’ PPEERRSSPPEECCTTIIVVEE

They are traditionally surplus farmers, a few in numbers in the study areas, and can sustain a certain extent of yield losses for approximately a year. Reasons for the differences mainly rest on the differences in possessions, savings (cash, grain stores, durables) and access. Crop failure may not necessarily lead to food shortages or hunger for them unless consecutive yield loss. These people may have some carryover stock from past harvests. They also have better access to credit and other support systems. Determining the actual risk tolerance limits for the identified critical requirements proved to be difficult in group discus-sions.

CCAASSEE SSTTUUDDYY 0011:: WWOOMMEENN

Name: Sharbanu Begum village: Purbo pakhiur Union:Bandebear

Sharbanu Begum lives in Purbo Pakhiura Charland in Bandebear union of Raumari upazila. She is 24 years old and has a 2 years old daughter. Her husband has 2 bighas of cultivable land where he mostly grows paddy.

Flood has a robust affect on lives and livelihood of the people of charlands. Protecting houses is of a great concern for the char dwellers during flood. Building a new house is always a costly venture for the charlands. Sharbanu was no exception. When Sharbanu first moved to this charland in 2006 they built a house with the financial and material support from a local NGO and her in-laws. Their house went under water at times of flood in last year. Thus, this year to protect her house from future flood, they raised the plinth of their house by 1 foot by taking loans from another local NGO named RSDA. Along with their homes their standing crops and homestead gardening is also destroyed by the flood. The unavailability of food and access to safe drinking water, sanitation and modern health care facilities are the major areas of her vulnerability.

Like many other women in the char, Sharbanu gathered the early warning of flood from various informal social gatherings. The dissemination of the early warnings of flood through radio and television is not very popular among the women in the char. As per her preparedness of flood is concern Sharbanu takes measures to reduce her risk during and after the flood. She makes scaffold, moveable soilhearth, store dry food and also know how to make oral saline at home. She learned many of those from the trainings provided by amber of local NGO. Her husband also plant banana trees to protect the homestead from the erosion during flood. As a coping strategy, they also take loans from various formal and informal sectors with high interest rates. After the flood water recedes, her husband also migrates to the nearby cities to sell labor to earn a living.


66..22..22.. LLAANNDDLLEESSSS,, SSHHAARREE--CCRROOPPPPEERRSS AANNDD MMAARRGGIINNAALL FFAARRMMEERRSS

The share-croppers and the marginal farmers perceive that they live on the edge in each production cycle. They do not have any shock absorbing limits e.g. there are no safe threshold limits for them as they are always at high risk. Hence, they unanimously said that any shock cannot be tolerated even for a single production season. In all field sites, the poor people are not in a position to accept yield losses of any level. Therefore, the upper tolerance limit for them is defined by zero percent yield loss. Transitory food shortage is common even during good seasons. The food and supply and income sources of the poor people are always uncertain and they are one of the most vulnerable groups.

CCAASSEE SSTTUUDDYY 0022:: LLAANNDDLLEESSSS AANNDD AAGGRRIICC LLAABBOOUURREERR

Name: Rafikul Islam Age: 37 Dowabari Union Hatibandha Upazila Lalmonirhat

Rafikul Islam is a small farmer. He mostly works as sharecropper. During the lean period, Rafikul along with his sons migrate to cities for a living. People in these areas live in extreme poverty. Often times, they do not have enough food to eat. Usually, early warnings of flash flood come to the villagers through mikes used by the local government authorities. Last year, the information of flood came to union Parishad chairman first and then the chairman used mobile phones and mikes to disseminate warnings of flash flood to the villagers. Local mosques also disseminate the early warnings of flood by using the mikes of the mosques. Sometimes the flood message come late and gives people a little time to move to a safer place. In such situation, it becomes very difficult to move away cattle or other household assets to a safer destination. Last year, when Rafikul Islam received the early warnings of flash flood he was bit confused. He along with his family members was in dilemma when and how to leave their house with cattle and other household assets within the short period of time. He rather stayed at home and spent a sleepless night to measure the water level in his backyard by a jute stick. Luckily, the water level of flood was low enough to keep them at their house. Rafikul do not have any radio or television. Thus, he is not aware of many of the government-sponsored radio and television programs on how to aware general masses about the warnings and preparedness of flood. But during flood, he has been told by some of his neighbors about some NGO initiatives in this regard. Some NGOs organized various cultural programs in local markets such as concert and drama to help aware and prepare the general people on flood.

In terms of his vulnerability, when flood hits they are surrounded by flood water and they have little or no food to eat. They had to take shelter on scaffold and also protect and feed their cattle which were painstaking at times of flood. As he did not have any work during flood so he suffers most by scarcity of food, water and medicine. He gave up his option of migrating to other cities for work as he needed to ensure the security of his family as well. As his coping strategy Rafiqul takes loan from local businessmen at a high interest rate. He also borrowed rice from his rich neighbor and promised to repay the rice during the off season when the prices of rice are high.

66..22..33.. TTOOLLEERRAANNCCEE TTHHRREESSHHOOLLDD LLEEVVEELL OOFF TTHHEE WWOOMMEENN

It is generally been recognized that there are differences between men and women in their needs, vulner-abilities, capacities and coping strategies, while women are more vulnerable to hazards than the males. Roles played by women in the farming systems are also different. Thus, women have different vision of threshold levels since they are very important part of the whole farming system. Additionally, the women are the manager of the household nutrition. On the level of risk tolerance, most of the women expressed opinion which is closer to that of the marginal farmers. Women perceive household food security (HFS) as the availability of food to meet household food needs throughout the year. It is believed that adequate food production is the basis on which the households’ build their food security and that should also be sustain-able. Hence, household food stocks are very important for women to ensure adequate supply of food to the


members of the household. Ensuring continuous supply implies hesitation to accept risk. Thus, women cannot tolerate any level of crop yield loss even for a single season.

CCAASSEE SSTTUUDDYY 0033:: WWOOMMAANN

Name: Bitri Das Age: 40 East parulia village Patikapara Union Hatibandha Upazila Lalmonirhat

Briti Das has two sons and one daughter. The ownership of land in char is different. One can posses land temporarily in chars. Individual who can occupy the land first becomes his/her own for one agricultural season. Biri das poses less than 2 decimal of land in char. Like many, she grows cash crop tobacco to get quick returns from her limited cultivable land. Flood is a huge burden for Bithi Das as it destroys her livelihoods. It is the local knowledge of the family and the community where she gets the early warning of flood through various social gathering. In addition, words of mouth also very useful means for dissemination the warnings of flood. Adult male members sometimes scream at night to warn others about the upcoming flash flood. Like many others in the village Bithi takes preparation for flood as they have been doing for years. During the Bengali months of Posh and Magh, she repairs their houses and made moveable soil hearth to cope with with flood. Like many in the char land, Bithi has little or no food at times of flood. Tobacco as cash crop cannot meet her daily food need for the entire year. Getting financial and material help form others is rare as all are in need at times of flood. To make a living she catches fish make nets and repair boat along with her other family members. She took loans from Grameen Bank and bought a cow for profit to repay her loans.

66..22..44.. PPWWDDSS AANNDD EEXXCCLLUUDDEEDD GGRROOUUPPSS

Persons with disabilities (PWDs), as being one of the most vulnerable groups, suffer most during the natural hazards’ exposure. Similarly, cultural beliefs or community attitudes toward the persons with disabilities contribute to either the vulnerability or the capacity of this category depending on the extent to which they reduce or increase the risk of disaster. Persons with disabilities face many obstacles in their normal life which increases during disaster episodes. The people with disabilities are highly vulnerable to natural disasters and thus they cannot tolerate any level of loss and therefore suffers most during disasters.

66..22..55.. TTHHEE RRIICCHH AANNDD TTHHEE SSUURRPPLLUUSS FFAARRMMEERRSS

Sometimes accelerated problems for the poor people become advantages for some other social groups especially for the well off people. Higher interest rates, and cheap and bonded labour can be obtained when the poor becomes more poor. Eventually, the money lenders become the owner of the poor peoples’ wealth. The situation leads to a complex dilemma since the failure in crops offers alternative opportunities for the wealthier farmers.

CCAASSEE SSTTUUDDYY 0044:: LLAANNDDOOWWNNEERR AANNDD RRIICCHH FFAARRMMEERR

Name: Mohammad Abdul Hamid Age: 60 Natun Bandor Village Raumari Union Raumari Upazila Kurigram

Mohammad Abdul Hamid has three sons. They live in a Tin Shade building. Hamid has 8 acres of cultivable land where he grows paddy, jute and sharisha.

The village is located in flash-flood prone area. Abdul Hamid uses both traditional and modern methods of predicting the flood. Among the traditional methods the signs of gloomy sky and the heightened water level are most important for him. He also gets flood information from radio and television.

As a staple crop he harvests amon (a local variety of paddy). But, during flood like others he also suffers the losses of agricultural outputs. When flood hits in 1988, it destroyed his standing crops, homestead gardening and livestock. He had difficulty accessing safe drinking water and sanitation. One of his sons also suffered from water borne diseases. His mobility also becomes restricted. Over years, he became more prepared for flood. In order to cope up


with the flood, last year he made scaffold on the yard to keep the livestock at times of flood and his wife made a moveable soilhearth. He also stored some of his household assets in his son’s house in the town before the flood comes. He also made a BHURA (made of banana tree) for transportation during flood and also made a temporary latrine. He stored some dry foods such as Chira, muri, rice and water purification tablets. He also kept carbolic acid locally known as PORA HOLUD in his house to keep away the venomous snakes. His wife kept oral saline and cooking materials to better cope with the flood. They also made a scaffold in the yard for domestic animals.

In post flood situation, Hamid gave four (4) acres of his land to a poor farmer as adhi. Rest of his land was for his own cultivation. He cultivates paddy and other crops. To reduce the risks of homestead erosion, he plants banana trees as these trees are believed to have stronger resistance to flood water. He does not necessarily depend on relief materials during and after flood. As community initiatives he rather financially helped to rebuild the local bridges.

66..33.. RREEGGEENNEERRAATTIIVVEE CCOOPPIINNGG SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS,, AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN AANNDD RREESSIILLIIEENNCCEE

Individuals and communities have some degrees of autonomy to choose coping pathways. The degree to which they are autonomous is, of course, constrained both by the wider economic and political environment but also by antecedent decisions that partly lock them into particular pathways. The copping strategies we found the study areas are of different types including immediate, and repeated or regenerative types. While maintaining responses are concerned with the immediate, repeated or regenerative responses form the basis of dynamic attempts to address longer-term issues. They include ways in which households seek to expand the resource base and included diversification through flexible land use, petty trade, migration and the provision of services. Key regenerative responses identified in this study are discussed below. AASSPPEECCTTSS OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

RRAANNGGEE OOFF RREESSPPOONNSSEESS–– SSHHOORRTT--TTEERRMM ((CCOOPPIINNGG)) AANNDD LLOONNGGEERR--TTEERRMM ((AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN)) KKUURRIIGGRRAAMM DDIISSTTRRIICCTT LLAALLMMOONNIIRRHHAATT DDIISSTTRRIICCTT

RROOUUMMAARRII HHAATTIIBBAANNDDHHAA AADDIITTMMAARRII

AAGGRRIICCUULL--TTUURRAALL CCHHAANNGGEESS AANNDD SSKKIILLLLSS

Individual agricultural experimen-tation (Kaon,Pera, Mushuri Kalai, Groundnut, Maize, Sugarcane, Onion, Banana, Bhenda cultivation, jute), Structured agricultural experimentation (paddy, maize, mustard), try to conserving resources (seed, rice, money), Storage of fodder (husk), traditional knowledge (early warning, crop calendar based on hazards), planting trees, using the natural landscape diversity (loam, sandy loam and silt land), irrigation system (shallow tube well)

Individual agricultural experi-mentation (Kaon, Pera, Mushuri Kalai, Groundnut, Maize, Sugarcane, Onion, Banana, Bhenda cultivation, jute, tobacco), Structured agricultural experimentation (maize, paddy, tobacco), traditional knowledge (early warning, crop calendar based on hazards), try to conserving resources (seed, rice, money), using natural landscape diversity (loam, sand loam and silt land), storage compost (cow dung, wastage, garbage, ash), tries to use and depend on cow dung as fertilizer as much as possible, traditional irrigation system (Chuaa, Tolaa)

Structured agricultural experimentation (maize, paddy, tobacco), try to conserving resources (seed, rice, money), traditional knowledge (early warning, crop calendar based on hazards), try to use and depend on cow dung as fertilizer as much as possible, traditional irrigation system (Chuaa, Tolaa)


AASSPPEECCTTSS OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

RRAANNGGEE OOFF RREESSPPOONNSSEESS–– SSHHOORRTT--TTEERRMM ((CCOOPPIINNGG)) AANNDD LLOONNGGEERR--TTEERRMM ((AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN)) KKUURRIIGGRRAAMM DDIISSTTRRIICCTT LLAALLMMOONNIIRRHHAATT DDIISSTTRRIICCTT

RROOUUMMAARRII HHAATTIIBBAANNDDHHAA AADDIITTMMAARRII

SSOOCCIIAALL CCAAPPIITTAALL CCHHAANNGGEESS

Investment in support networks, Building of exclusive networks by neighbourhood (for loan, lending rice and to move house and housing materials during flood), Exploring Patrilineal ties, women are working both in home and agricultural field Investing in women’s groups in CLP, Evolved traditional non-cash exchange mechanisms (rice, domestic animals especially hen, pigeon, sheep etc). Bridge over the water bodies, Pilling with Bamboo to protect the river bank

Investment in support networks, Increasing participation in exclusive networks, Publicly promoting social cohesion, Reciprocity: Halkhata, women are working both in home and agricultural field , Building of exclusive networks by neighbourhood (for loan, lending rice and to move house and housing materials),

Investment in support networks, Building of agricultural cooperatives, Evolved traditional non-cash exchange mecha-nisms, Interactions between traditional leaders and local administration, women are working both in home and agricultural fields Building of exclusive networks by neighbourhood (for loan, lending rice and to move house and housing materials),

CCOOMMMMEERRCCIIAALL--IIZZIINNGG

Home based investment in poultry (chicken, pigeon) and livestock (sheep), Investment in cash-crop production (sugarcane, jute, maize etc), investment in homestead gardening. Collective attempt in social forestry initiatives, Growing trees of economic value

Home based Investment in poultry (chicken) and livestock (sheep), Growing plants of economic value (maize, tobacco, pumpkin)

Women’s horticultural collectives, home based investment in livestock (goat), Growing plants of economic value maize, tobacco, pumpkin)

OOFFFF--FFAARRMM RROOLLEESS

Making movable Chula /alga Chula, Fuel Preservation, Raising Tube well, Raising plinth of the house, Making scaffold in the house, Food preservation (Sidol: Dry Fish), Plant shon for protecting homestead and river bank, Fuel preservation (wood, bamboo, jute stick), Regular migrant work for cash to nearby growth centres and neighbouring regions, fishing, mason, handloom business.

Making movable Chula /alga Chula, Raising Tube well, Raising plinth of the house, Making scaffold in the house, Food reservation (Sidol: Dry Fish), Fuel preservation (wood, bamboo, jute stick), Regular circular migrant work and long-term migrant jobs to neighbour-ing regions, fishing, mason.

Making movable Chula /alga Chula, Raising Tube well, Raising plinth of the house, Making scaffold in the house, Food reserva-tion (Sidol: Dry Fish), Fuel preservation (wood, bamboo, jute stick), Regular circular migrant work and long-term migrant jobs to neighbour-ing regions , fishing, mason.

66..33..11.. SSEEAASSOONNAALLLLYY DDIIVVEERRSSIIFFIIEEDD PPRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN SSYYSSTTEEMMSS

Seasonally alternative farming systems may be considered as an example of regenerative coping that utilises the natural diversity of the landscape and seasonality to cope with climatic adversities including flood and flash flood. In the charlands of Roumari upazilla this involves using fertile lowlands during dry seasons and hydroponics when the floodplain lowlands are flooded. However, coping decisions over land use were characterised by both spontaneity in response to immediate pressures and by changes to crops through trial and error.

The highway (see map XX) passed through Rowmari upazilla has implications for the distribution and drainage of monsoon flood water. The Eastern side is characterized by low land and sustains the immedi-ate impact of water swelling in Brahmaputra River. While, land formation on the western side of the highway is relatively higher than the other side and remains out of flood water to a limited extent of inundation level.


Therefore, people accept this risk and raise seedlings for paddy cultivation. If the water level rises to inundate their seedlings bed, they cannot help refraining from paddy cultivation. Instead they seek alterna-tive option for income diversification as discussed in the proceeding section.

Maintaining the ability to diversify and be flexible enabled many households to be resilient in the face of seasonal hazards. Of those interviewed in Roumari, more than half of the respondents had been able to maintain alternative cropping patterns based on their economic abilities and background (see the figure XX). The key constraints for those unable to follow this alternative cropping pattern were lack of access to land and lack of cash, whatever little the amount is, required for production. Thus the land owning house-holds that could accumulate some amount of cash were in a better position to maintain resilient livelihood systems.

In response to an increase in frequency and intensity of flood events over the past decades, the proactive households have repeatedly explored different production possibilities and alternatives for transforming patterns of land use. Looking more closely at the profile of these households revealed that well-off house-holds i.e. households with more cash capital tended to cultivate maize and sugar cane, jute and vegetables. Similarly, those households that were lacking is financial resources were more likely to have access to grow pera, kaon, kalai and groundnut. Statistical analyses suggested that well-off households were able to better utilise the production alternatives i.e. alternative production for higher economic returns because they had more land and capital including cash and family labour to work for higher economic returns. Over the years, the marginal land owning farmers have demonstrated that some form of cash capital, or the availability of the productive factors for which the cash is required, have been able to increase their resilience against flood and flash flood. This represents a further increase in capital consistency for successful practice, and an anticipatory response towards future climate events.

66..33..22.. DDIIVVEERRSSIIFFIICCAATTIIOONN OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS

Repeated and developed regenerative coping responses have transformed livelihood activities such as the intent, scale and length of migrations, and petty trade and services. These diverse activities are now consistently incorporated into rural livelihoods. Most of the respondents had diversified income sources besides subsistence farming, although the majority of these are reliant on the natural resource base. But the benefits of diversification remain inequitably distributed across the community, reinforcing differences in resilience.

Significant number households at both Rowmari and Hatibandha were investing in sheep because they are hardy and easier to look after than other cattle. These animals take everything as food, have resistant power against cold wave and water scarcity.

Temporary migration to seek temporary employment based on wage labour in urban or neighbouring areas are quite common among the landless poor, and marginal and sharecropping farmers. People belonging to this category, according to the respondents, regularly used this coping practice. When the flood water recedes, looking for temporary employments outside the locality for longer, but temporary, periods was considered a last resort by some households during repeated or prolonged extreme situations.

TTAABBLLEE 66..22:: IIMMPPAACCTTSS OOFF,, AANNDD RREESSPPOONNSSEESS TTOO,, FFLLOOOODD AANNDD FFLLAASSHH FFLLOOOODD TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY VVIILLLLAAGGEESS AASSPPEECCTTSS OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

PPEERRCCEEIIVVEEDD IIMMPPAACCTTSS OONN LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODDSS

RRAANNGGEE OOFF NNOONN EERROOSSIIVVEE RREESSPPOONNSSEESS–– CCOOPPIINNGG

AANNDD AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN

RRAANNGGEE OOFF EERROOSSIIVVEE

RREESSPPOONNSSEESS AAGGRRIICCUULL--TTUURREE,, FFAARRMMIINNGG

□ Inundation of seedlings’ bed □ Crops failure □ Can’t afford to buy good seeds

□ Storing vegetable seeds. □ Changing and experimenting types of

crops and vegetable production related

□ Draw down assets (e.g., skip meals, not pay


TTAABBLLEE 66..22:: IIMMPPAACCTTSS OOFF,, AANNDD RREESSPPOONNSSEESS TTOO,, FFLLOOOODD AANNDD FFLLAASSHH FFLLOOOODD TTHHEE SSTTUUDDYY VVIILLLLAAGGEESS AASSPPEECCTTSS OOFF LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODD SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS

PPEERRCCEEIIVVEEDD IIMMPPAACCTTSS OONN LLIIVVEELLIIHHOOOODDSS

RRAANNGGEE OOFF NNOONN EERROOSSIIVVEE RREESSPPOONNSSEESS–– CCOOPPIINNGG

AANNDD AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN

RRAANNGGEE OOFF EERROOSSIIVVEE

RREESSPPOONNSSEESS PPRRAACCTTIICCEE AANNDD SSUUBBSSIISSTTEENNCCEE

□ Seeds do not germinate and loss of seeds. Most of the times farmers have to grow seedlings more than once.

□ Most of the land becomes sandy after flood.

□ less fodder for animals to eat □ Debt (money owed for food,

tillage & ploughing) □ Death of livestock □ Less grass for animal herd □ Pests infestation □ Scarcity of drinking water for

animals □ During flooding, even

fishermen, handloom workers and boatmen cannot continue their regular business.

□ Shop keepers also have sell products in credit.

□ Scarcity of food □ Scarcity of drinking water □ Shortage of fuel □ Shelter problem □ Erosion of soil (homestead,

river bank)

to spatial/temporal crop performance (Kaon, Pera, Mushuri Kalai, Ground Nut, Maize, mustard, sweet potato, Sugar-cane, Onion cultivation )

□ Store fodder (husk) □ Grow banana tree for raft/vura. □ Go to town to buy more seeds □ Tries the short-maturing crop varieties

(tobacco, pera, kaon) □ Take small stock to areas within river

network or other villages □ Use resistant crop variety □ Raising plinth of the house, Making

scaffold in the house, & raising plinth of cattle shelter (Goaal Ghar)

□ Fishermen, handloom worker try to earn their livelihood by repairing and making net. Boat man by repairing boat, so on.

□ Depend on charity or aid from outside community, food aid & Donor assis-tances.

□ Plant winter crops □ Plant late maturing trees □ Making movable Chula /alga Chula, □ Raising Tube well platform □ Food preservation (Sidol: Dry Fish),

Plant shon for protecting homestead & river bank,

□ Fuel preservation (wood, bamboo, jute stick),

school fees). □ Sell assets (land

& domestic animal in ex-treme needs)

□ Encroach on assets of others

□ Collect wild fruits and available food items.

□ Female members of the landless laborer family working as a maid servant

CCOOMMMMEERR--CCIIAALLIIZZAATTIIOONN AANNDD OOFFFF--FFAARRMM EEMMPPLLOOYY--MMEENNTTSS

□ Shirking marketing opportuni-ties

□ Lack of cash/ money □ lack of assets to sell (land,

crops or livestock) □ Limited access and opportuni-

ties for transportation. □ Limited access to credit □ Higher interest rate for credit

(local money lender) □ Lack of off-farm employment

opportunity

□ Try to start new business venture □ Travel to town to find work □ Regular migrant work for cash to nearby

growth centres and neighbouring re-gions, fishing, mason, handloom busi-ness,

□ work in other places □ Van puller and rickshaw puller

□ Sell livestock □ Formal and

informal credit □ Illicit conducts

like Stealing and smuggling

□ Use underem-ployed assets (child labor).

SSOOCCIIAALL CCAAPPIITTAALL

□ Homesteads become isolated islands

□ Weakened community social ties and network for physical isolation by flooding.

□ Char people are neglected by highland people and remained far away from GO and NGO offices and their development programme.

□ Bridge over the water bodies, □ Pilling with Bamboo to protect the river

bank □ Mobilize kinship and extended family

networks for assistance. □ Pray at Mosque

□ Ask for money from relatives

□ Illegal activities


Spatial networks to other villages and towns increase access to resources unavailable locally, for example remittances. Some of the households in the study areas had a high dependency on remittances from male members (usually sons) of the household regularly seeking work in urban areas, sometimes in illegal temporary smuggling works. This is also partly a legacy of social adaptation that has become has become a part of local identity, while seeking employment based on wage labour seen as a ‘rite of passage’ for young men. However, the youth were experiencing push factors from the village as they claimed it was difficult to gain access to land and they felt alienated from the local opportunity structures. Those interviewed resented their family’s expectance of them to do well and send home remittances, but did not see subsistence farming as a way of life. They wanted to generate ‘skills’ through education or exposure to skills training during migrant work. While these are recognised by NGOs working in the area, it raises the issue of how to address youth identity when assessing longer-term adaptations in rural livelihoods.

66..33..33.. TTHHEE RROOLLEE OOFF WWOOMMEENN

Disasters in Bangladesh have always impacted the women more adversely because of built-in societal norms. The women become more severely affected than men because of their responsibilities and everyday activities including food processing and cooking, cleaning, collecting water and fuel, looking after the livestock and belongings. Thus women are a rich depository of traditional and indigenous knowledge about environment, and their skills in coping with disasters are often remarkably efficient. The vast wealth of women’s traditional knowledge of coping with disasters is very important to cope with the disaster situation.

Women keep the house safe by making decisions when and how the coping strategies can be done. They work together with the men to protect the belongings by making scaffold or raising plinth. They store food, fuel, medicine, seeds for the emergency situations. They also work with men for better production in the agricultural fields. They mainly work in the sowing and harvesting period.

Table 6.3: Gender Dimension SSEECCTTOORR WWIISSEE CCOOPPIINNGG

SSTTRRAATTEEGGIIEESS WWOOMMEENN EEXXCCLLUUSSIIVVEE

PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE JJOOIINNTT PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE MMEENN EEXXCCLLUUSSIIVVEE PPEERRFFOORRMMAANNCCEE

Resilient housing structure and coping

• Raising plinth of the house • Making scaffold in the house • Raising plinth of cattle house (goal ghor)

Coping with food insecurity

• Vegetable seed storage • Food preservation - sidol

- dry fish • Homestead gardening

Paddy grain storage

Coping with water scarcity Raising tube well

Coping with energy use and efficiency

• Making movable chula (alga chula) • Fuel preservation • Preservation of cow dung as fuel • Making Ghuchi


Optimizing production proviso and coping

• Organic manure • Bhenda cultivation

• Kaon • Pera • Mushuri kalai • Ground nut • Maize • Sugar cane • Onion • Banana • Fish Collection

• Tola • Traditional irrigation technique - well/ chuaa

Coping and community resilience

• Bridge over the water bodies • Pilling with bamboo to protect the road

66..33..44.. RREEOORRGGAANNIIZZEEDD SSOOCCIIAALL SSUUPPPPOORRTTSS NNEETTWWOORRKKSS

The move towards a decentralized administrative system of governance in Bangladesh, with formal structures and clear responsibilities at the upazila level, has increased communication channels between the village, local authorities and the extension services. This had served to reinforce locally initiated coping responses and encourage the activities of NGOs that facilitate the transfer of ideas about innovative new technologies. The ability to creatively reorganise social support networks, especially SHGs (self help groups) arrangements by NGOs interventions have, to a large extent, formalised the process of reciprocity in the moral economy, and have helped sustain these coping practices.

Such group formation protects social norms, including aspirations of livestock ownership, and strengthens solidarity and trust within the community through the promotion of equity, at least in terms of access to productive assets. The formalisation of these networks has improved sharing knowledge in production, poultry and livestock raising and increased communication among Government line agencies, NGOs and rural households.

Increased and repeated utilization of non-cash exchange or barter system by the households created a buffer against the impacts of flood, and crystallized cooperation in adaptive capacity across the community. However, villagers claimed that these formally recognised activities had helped maintain solidarity between neighbours, facilitating families sharing food during transitory scarcities. This adaptation had potentially strengthened the village’s capacity to cope with future shocks and can be linked to second key component of resilience, the ability to self-organise (Carpenter et al. 2001). That self-organisation has strengthened in response to hazards suggests that at the community-level resilience is growing stronger, and that the ‘culture’ of cooperative action and solidarity are being considered to be important by the respondents.

These groups’ formations have begun to secure at least some resources for the poor, who previously had little access to resources during hardship. It also reflects the community’s shared experience of extreme events of flood and flash flood, and helps them to reinforce the traditional cultural norms and values. This has developed an enabling environment that then local leaders, in future, may embark on to initiate the establishment of collective projects pursuing common goals.

66..33..55.. IINNFFOORRMMAALL IINNSSTTIITTUUTTIIOONNSS AANNDD EEXXTTEERRNNAALL SSUUPPPPOORRTT NNEETTWWOORRKKSS

In this research we found that informal social institutions defined by kinship, neighborhood or friendship, play vital roles in devising coping strategies and a framework for taking action to respond to natural hazards. These institutions were essentially informal and exclusive types of networks that developed to facilitate coping actions or daily livelihood activities, including those associated with generating economic


income or support. Through these social institutions, individuals and household received and gave activi-ties, products or money that formed the elements of the coping system.

People have also evolved a dependency on complex informal institutions to provide them with the essential networks external to the villages. Many households are found to be mobilizing networks extending outside the village, in some cases following matrilineal networks to other villages, and these networks had been used to initiate work opportunities. These bridged networks have historically provided coping responses, such as migrant work, opportunities to develop more diverse livelihoods and access to technology or access to land in other locations. Maintaining external relationships brought more coping options during times of difficulty. The migrant wage remains an important part of male identity and a regular part of coping. Migrant work is an important source of cash for all the villages within the study areas. In all the study areas we found that many people usually go outside of their village and return to their respective village on completion of their job target. These returnees were particularly enthusiastic about the ‘modern’ farming they had encountered elsewhere and were more likely to adopt new practices and disseminate new ideas.

66..33..66.. TTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGIICCAALL CCHHAANNGGEE AANNDD IINNNNOOVVAATTIIVVEE FFAARRMMIINNGG RREESSPPOONNSSEESS

The households in the study areas have developed an incipient state of organized efforts to counteract climatic variability during recent years. Farmers have collectively been developing repeated and specific regenerative farming responses which plan for flood, flash flood, heavy rains and increased variability. Government extension services and NGOs have promoted and specifically encouraged experimentation with improved varieties through their respective supports and services.

Some of the respondents claimed to have actively experimenting with new technologies (including both wealthy and poorer households) and had changed to a more flood resistant and a shorter maturing crop variety, such as, kaon, kalai, tobacco, pera, maize and groundnuts, as a direct result of extension advice disseminated through GOs and NGOs channels. Using new technologies in response to recent extreme climate change can be attributed as strategic copings because the changes included structural manage-ment and livelihood activities.

These channels have also provided a formal buffer to the risks of individual farming with knowledge transfer to support the farming households to manage problems such as pest infestations, effective use of fertilisers and the application of newly learned skills. Some of the respondents received formal training from different sources and shared new information amongst the other community members, and information exchange goes well beyond the boundaries of the social groupings and across communities. Active development of agro-forestry and social forestry has been another recent innovation in local farming practice to address climatic adversities. The local people are also encouraged and given some specific training on planting, breeding and nurturing economically viable plants in and around the homesteads which provide valuable sources of food and income. People in all the study areas felt that the planting of individual trees had increased their future possibilities of income and protection of surrounding environment.

66..33..77.. AAPPPPRRIISSIINNGG CCOOPPIINNGG AANNDD AADDAAPPTTAATTIIOONN

The central difference between coping and adaptation operates over timescale. Coping is an instantaneous and short-term response to an immediate situation, while adaptation emerges out of complicated and regenerative coping responses when these repeatedly used to develop adaptations to longer-term or more persistent change. Adaptations can, therefore, be distinguished by their appropriateness of action, and by livelihood progression beyond reactive responses to disasters and climate change impacts. However, the case studies presented in the previous chapter illustrate that responses to regular risk of flooding have


established an alternative cropping system, where consistency has been developed through tactical ‘trial and error’ farming practice by individual farmers, which has eventually become a more strategic ‘proactive’ practice by the community people.

Again, certain actions can be both coping while, at the same time, form part of the process of adaptation. This is because people have dynamic livelihood responses and are strategically reactive to anticipated hazard events. This study reveals that the enhancement of social networks for economic migration was used to mobilize strategic supports and, in the sense of longer-term, generation of employment opportuni-ties. Besides, though adaptation is often triggered by the threats of hazard events (e.g. climate change, natural and man-made), such as changes in cropping patterns or creation of informal social support networks, but there are exceptions as well. Some of the observed adaptations found in this study had not been triggered by specific events, instead they were either the result of strategic interventions by govern-ment and NGOs programmes, or were products of evolving social transformations and/or the actions of innovative and well-connected individuals.

Technological changes (such as HYV and associated innovations) are not always adaptations undertaken outside times of crisis. New ways of doing things were distinctive during reactive coping too, and successes of changes brought about during coping, for example experimenting with new groundnut varieties during drought, sometimes became part of subsequent ongoing technological strategies.

Al large, it might be noted that adaptations are operative on wider scales than coping. But we have seen that the study households have uneven access to uptake adaptive options resulting differential levels of success across the study population. This is primarily because households have differential access to or exclusion from information, institutions or crucial resources such as skills and cash. Particularly the most vulnerable households have less resource mobilization capacities as well as lower endowment of human capacities to participate in any forms of reciprocal exchanges within their respective villages and communi-ties. They usually turn to collective support networks, external assistance and/or the traditional authorities at the times of stress.

66..44.. LLOOCCAALL RRIISSKK GGOOVVEERRNNAANNCCEE AANNDD CCOOPPIINNGG RREESSPPOONNSSEE

The community people have their own ways of collecting risk information, analyzing risk and taking decisions for managing risk situations through generating coping responses. These conventions, processes or mechanisms comprise a broad picture of indigenous risk governance including coping practices. The indigenous risk governance looks at how risk-related decision-making unfolds when a range of actors is involved, requiring co-ordination and possibly reconciliation between a profusion of roles, perspectives, goals and activities. The problem-solving capacities of individual actors also include risk’s context by taking account of such factors as the historical background, guiding principles, value systems and perceptions. Local risk governance however not only includes a versatile and multi-actor or community based risk coping process but also calls for the consideration of contextual factors such as institutional arrangements4

For wider understanding of coping responses and the complexities, uncertainties and ambiguities of risk situations, we attempt developing an integrative framework that takes into account the local socio-economic and politico-economic processes involved in generating indigenous knowledge and coping responses (see Figure- 9.1). The framework has been designed to include enough flexibility in understanding the wide diversity of risk governance strategies employed by the local actors in Bangladesh. We, firstly, discussed a

and politico-economic culture including different local perceptions of risk.

4 e.g. the regulatory and legal framework that determines the relationship, roles and responsibilities of the actors and co-ordination mechanisms such as markets, incentives or self-imposed norms.


comprehensive risk handling chain of the local people, breaking down its various components into three main phases: ‘situation assessment’, ‘threat appraisal’, and ‘response and management’. The two interme-diate and closely linked stages of risk characterisation and evaluation have been placed between the appraisal and response phases. The local assessors interpret evidences for characterising risks and evaluate underlying values for judging their own limits of tolerance and levels of acceptability.


CCHHAAPPTTEERR SSEEVVEENN CCOONNCCUUSSIIOONN

The preceding chapters pertain to capturing indigenous knowledge of nature and diverse coping responses that people generated in their respective attempts to adapt with natural calamities. In this conclusion, we would shift our attention from the knowledge of nature to the nature of knowledge to elucidate how indige-nous people manage available knowledge to reach solutions to the problems they encounter in everyday life. Focusing on the nature of indigenous knowledge would help organizing the major findings and analyzing them for crystallizing the outcomes of this research. The aim of this discussion is to explore indigenous people’s mechanisms of responding to risk situations in order to identify effective approaches for improving and enhancing the visibility of the onshore risk governance processes within which coping strategies are embedded.

There is a wide body of knowledge among smallholder farmers in soil and water conservation, pests and disease management, nutrient conservation (manuring and green manuring), traditional healing methods, insect pest management, water management, etc. Future development strategy can be built on this local knowledge emphasizing on internally sustainable resources. We have to keep in mind that adequate food is a central concern of the households, but not the only one. Different groups pursue widely different objec-tives and have widely different perspectives. Hence, the modernist approach based on increasing agricul-tural production and productivity that is dependent on high level of external inputs has to be critically re-examined. It has to be understood that use of local resource and knowledge could enable to build self-reliance and resilience, and it is sustainable.

Building a disaster resilient community requires adequate policies and an enabling environment. Policy formulation and implementation in a rapidly changing physical and socio-economic environment requires deep understanding of the complexities and diversities. It is crucial to understand the complexities and diversities in an adequately broad way. Holistic views of daily realities are required. It has to be recognized by the policy makers that, increased production at national level does not avoid the famine in local areas. A focus on production should not neglect the role of distribution. It has to also address the issue of entitlement to food, in the long run. Again, traditional coping mechanisms of the poorer households seem to be strained by poor access to productive resources, and also by higher population growth in the rural areas. Hence appropriate policies need to be designed to address the need of the poor people and other disadvantaged groups.

77..11.. PPRROOGGRRAAMMMMEE RREECCOOMMMMEENNDDAATTIIOONNSS

Helping the rural people to manage food shortages that occur due to various reasons implies assisting the poor towards developing livelihood strategies that are both less vulnerable to hazards and more resilient in the face of hazards. It is not enough to concentrate on increasing food supply, or on responding to crisis with food-related interventions. Lessons must be learnt from different intervention and package programs enforced thus far. A wider conceptual approach is needed to tackle the deep-seated structural problems of the rural poor. Some implications that are derived from the findings of this study and that might, perhaps, help towards the efforts of making livelihoods in the rural areas more sustainable. Based on the foregoing discussions and results obtained in this study, the following recommendations may be considered.


□ We have recommended strategies and potentials for replications of each of the coping strategies we have found in the study areas. Please see the discussion of different coping strategies presented in chapter five for details about the respective recommendations.

□ Those farmers who have more options to diversify more are less vulnerable to hazards. Thus, pro-grammes may be undertaken to increase diversity of activities within farms along with increased link-ages and flows between them.

□ Some benefits from floods, while others lose. Hence, indigenous collective action system needs to be encouraged and cooperation between the communities, the public and government agencies have to be strengthened. This requires an active participation of the poor, not impositions.

□ Programmes of rural poverty reduction and alleviation need to tackle biases against poor farmers and women. Many agricultural services are biased towards the better-off farmers. Well off farmers find it easier to get credits and advises whereas it is less likely for the poorer to have access to extension services. Hence, a more equitable access to resources, particularly credits, is vital to the rural poor and women to improve their ways of living. Efforts to combat poverty should, thus, aim at improving poor people’s access and entitlement to resources including credits. Specific programmes are required to reduce this biasness and enable the poor people and women to mobilize resources.

□ Programmes based on a better understanding of the dynamics of farmers’ objectives, perceptions and decision-making behaviours are of vital importance. Assumptions of homogeneity of the rural poor needs to be re-examined. Agriculture has multiple goals that are not mutually compatible. Also, the rural poor are extremely diverse and they have multiple perspectives. Assumption of homogeneity of-ten overlooks the most vulnerable households which need to be addressed by further interventions.

□ Households’ food insecurity has to be tackled. Hence, programs for asset and income building have to be sought and be encouraged by both governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Improve-ment in nutritional intake of the rural poor should also be given attention since it is a precondition in human welfare.

□ Regular drazing of the river is of importance to reduce the risks of catastrophic flood damage in the locale. The government should come forward in this regard.

□ Raising the plinth of the house is very popular adaptation method for the villagers during flood. The initiatives by the NGOs to help households to raise their plinths of the houses are good but not enough. NGOs may widen their coverage in this regard.

□ Joblessness at times of flood is a huge problem. Both GO and NGOs should create more job opportun-ities even on temporary basis for the villagers.

□ The safety net programmes and different extension services may be intensified to assist the marginal people at the time of utmost needs.

□ A better coordination between GO and NGOs in relation to flood awareness programs may also be considered.

77..22.. RREECCOOMMMMEENNDDAATTIIOONNSS FFOORR FFUUTTUURREE RREESSEEAARRCCHH A great deal has been learnt from this fieldwork. But, a little has been touched from the wider concepts depicted in the conceptual model adopted in this study. Undertaking study on indigenous knowledge and traditional risk management strategies related to flood in two districts may enable to understand the


differences (ecosystems, religion, culture, and the like) and the underlying reasons for the differences. However we recommend further research in the following areas:

□ An assessment of the local knowledge in different localities under different contexts and stresses is very important. It will be the building block to make possible the future without hunger and famine. Lo-cal knowledge has to be studied further.

□ Establishing empirical tolerance threshold levels may help to understand agricultural risk tolerance of different actors with widely different perspectives. This might also contribute to policy-making efforts and for public intervention measures and needs to be explored further.

□ Research has to be also on the generation of multi-functional technologies that may bring changes in several components of the farming systems at the same time depending on grass-roots driven ap-proaches. Research needs to be geared to the roots of local problems and it has to also build on exist-ing farming practices and locality-specific knowledge so as to develop technologies grounded in local conditions in the broader context of sustainability.

□ Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) might also help to compare and contrast ‘objective data’ with peoples’ perceptions of different sources of risks in different localities. It would be also important to see the effect of the biosocial environment on the livelihoods, vulnerability and the risk management strategies.


General Glossary Capability A demonstrable capacity to respond to and recover from a particular threat or hazard.

Originally a military term, it includes personnel, equipment, training, and such matters as plans, doctrine and the concept of operations.

Capability gap The gap between the current ability to provide a response and the actual response assessed to be required for a given threat and hazard. Plans should be made to reduce or eliminate this gap, if the risk justifies it.

Consequences Impact resulting from the occurrence of a particular hazard or threat, measured in terms of the numbers of lives lost, people injured, the scale of damage to property and the disruption to essential services and commodities.

Coping Mechanism Coping may be defined as the manners in which people and organizations use existing resources to achieve various beneficial ends during unusual, abnormal and adverse conditions of a disaster event or process.

Damage Physical destruction, corruption of information, or loss of beneficial social phenomena (e.g. trust or affiliation).

Disaster A serious disruption to a community caused by the impact of an event which requires a significant coordinated response by the Government and other entities to help the community to recover from the disruption. Disasters are usually associated with severe damage to infrastructure and utilities, death, injuries and homelessness, and can be widespread or contained within a particular sector or sub sector.

Hazard An accidental or naturally occurring event or situation with the potential to cause physical (or psychological) harm to members of the community (including loss of life), damage or losses to property, and/or disruption to the environment or to structures (economic, social, political) upon which a community’s way of life depends.

Hazard assessment A component of the risk assessment process in which identified hazards are as-sessed for future action.

Hazard identification A process by which potential hazards are identified. Impact The scale of the consequences of a hazard or threat expressed in terms of a

reduction in human welfare, damage to the environment and loss of security. Mitigation The process of implementing measures that eliminate or significantly reduce the risks

associated with potential hazards. Resilience The ability of the community, services, area or infrastructure to withstand the

consequences of an incident. Risk Risk measures the significance of a potential event in terms of likelihood and impact.

In the context of the Civil Contingencies Act, the events in question are emergencies. Risk Assessment A structured and auditable process of identifying potentially significant events,

assessing their likelihood and impacts, and then combining these to provide an overall assessment of risk, as a basis for further decisions and action.

Risk Management The culture, processes and structures that are directed towards the effective man-agement of risks.

Threat The intent and capacity to cause loss of life or create adverse consequences to human welfare (including property and the supply of essential services and commodi-ties), the environment or security.

Threat Assessment A component of the risk assessment process in which identified threats are assessed for future action.

Vulnerability The susceptibility of a community, services or infrastructure to damage or harm by a realised hazard or threat.


GLOSSARY OF LOCAL TERM Adhi Share cropping Alga chulas Movable hearth Bele-dowash Sandy loam soil Bhamor Bhamor means making holes 6/7 inch deep and 1 foot apart in the land and then covering it

with peanut seeds in the soil. Bhenda One kind of plants that grow 8-10 ft long and have many branches but the branches are little

which have much medicinal value. Scientific name - Ricinus communis L. (Euph) Bhendy Laddy’s finger Bigha Unit of land measurement , 22 Decimals in Northwest Bangladesh Chang ‘Chang’ is the local name given to the scaffold prepared for drying fishes in the locality. Chatai Bamboo made mat Chholashak Leaves of legume Chuaa Well Daal Pulse Dheki A wooden device especially for husking rice Jinge Luffa acutangula Roxb. (Cucurbita.) Jhiri Small river Kachu arum of any type Kalai Pulse Kaon a kind of corn, like rice, belongs to Gramin family which is much smaller than rice and is like

mustard seeds in size Karala Momordica charantea L. (Cucurbita) Kharif The wet season (typically March to October) characterized by monsoon rain

and high temperatures. kushal/ kushar Sugarcane Lalshak Amaranthus tricolor L. (Amarantha.) (A. gangeticus L.) Matir chula Mud made hearth Maund Measurement unit, 40 kg Monga semi famine situation Mushuri kalai It is a bushy annual plant grown for its lens-shaped seeds. Neem Azadirachta indica A. Juss. Null Null means taking soil from the inside of two lines and putting them at the bottom of the

plants Palong Spinach Parek Iron pin Pera Pera is a kind of crop grown on the sandy soil; grinded grain is eaten like flour with

molasses or salt and pepper together Puti Barbus stigma, B. puntio, B. sophore Puishak One kind of vegetables (leaf of jute) Sako Sako is a traditional barrier overcoming mechanism over the river. Sidol Dry fish Rabi The dry season, November to February. Crops grown are boro, wheat, potato, pulses and

oilseeds. Tengra Mystus vitatus Tola A long bamboo and blanket is used to collect water from the pond. Local people of

Lalmonirhat called this system “Tola”. The local people tied the blanket on the edge of a long bamboo and use the bamboo as a handle. Then they tied the edge of the bamboo with another one which works as a pillar. They keep pressure on handle-bamboo to sink the blanket into the water and shift water from the pond to the agricultural land.

Vora Raft made by banana plant which used as life saving vehicle at the time of floods.


BIBLIOGRAPHY Anderson JR, Dillon JL and Hardakar JB, 1977, Agricultural Decision Analysis, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 344. Baumol, W. J., 1963, "An Expected Gain-Confidence Limit Criterion for Portfolio Selection." Management Science 10:174-82. BBS, 2006, Population Census-2001, Community Series, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh, Dhaka BBS, 2006, Population Census-2001, Zila Series, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh, Dhaka BBS, 2007, Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh - 2006, Community Series, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS),

Bangladesh, Dhaka Bebbington, A.., 1999, “Capital and Capabilities: A Framework for Analysing Peasant Viability, Rural Livelihoods, and Poverty”, World

Development, Vol 27, No. 12, pp. 203-44. Bebbington et al., 1997, Bebbington, A (1997), “New States, New NGOs? Crisis and Transition among Andean Rural Development

NGOs”, World Development, Vol. 25, pp. 1755-1765. Bern, et al, 1993. Risk factors for mortality in the Bangladesh cyclone of 1991, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 71(1). Chambers and Conway, G., 1992, ‘Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the 21st century’, IDS Discussion Paper 296, Brighton: IDS. Carney, D., 1998, ‘Implementing the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Approach’, in D. Carney, ed; Sustainable Rural Livelihoods:

What Contribution Can We Make?, London: Department of International Development. Casley, D.J. and Kumar, K., 1988, The Collection, Analysis and Use of Monitoring andEvaluation Data (Oxford). Chavas, Jean-Paul, R. Petrie, and M. Roth, 2005, “Farm Household Production Efficiency: Evidence from the Gambia” American Journal of Agricultural Economics

87(2005): 160-179. CEGIS (Center for Environmental and geographic Information Services), Prediction for Bank Erosion and Morphological Changes of the Jamuna and Padma River, Center for Environmental

and geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Dhaka. Cutler, Peter and Robing Stephenson, 1984, “The state of food emergency preparedness in Ethiopia”, London: International Disaster Relief and Development

Institute. Cyclone Shelter Preparatory Study (CSPS), 1996, A critical needs’ assessment using Participatory Rural Appraisal, Dhaka. Disaster Mitigation Programme (DMP), 2002, An Attempt on Application of Alternative Strategies for Community Based Flood Preparedness in South-Asia

(Bangladesh), ITDG-B, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Douglas M.T., and Wildavsky, A.B., 1982, “Risk and Culture: an Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers”, University of California

Press, Berkeley, CA. Draft National Plan for Disaster Management 2007-2015, May, 2007, Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, Bangladesh Dreze, J. and Sen, A.., 1989, Drèze, and Amartya Sen, eds. 1989. The Political Economy of Hunger: Selected Essays. Oxford: Clarendon

Press.. Dutta, A. K. and Ms. Iftekhar, 2004, “Tree Species Survival in the Homestead Forests of Salt Affected Areas: A Perception Analysis for Bangladesh”,

Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 4 (3): 309-313. Evans, P., 1996, “Government action, social capital and development: Reviewing the evidence on synergy”, World Development

24(6): 1119-1132. Fletschener, D.K., and L. Zepeda, 2002, “Efficiency of Small Landholders in Eastern Paraguay.” Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics,


BIBLIOGRAPHY 27(2):554-572.

Frank Ellis, 2000, Rural livelihoods and diversity in developing countries, Oxford university express. Hanoch, G. and H. Levy, 1969, “The Efficiency Analysis of Choices Involving Risk” Review of Economic Studies, 36(1969) 335-336. Hadar J. and W. Rusell, 1969, “ Rules for Ordering Uncertain Prospects” American Economic Review. 59(1969): 25-34 Hardaker, J.B. et al., 1997, Coping with Risk in Agriculture. CAB International. Wallingford. Hellen Keller International, December, 2000, Bangladesh Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Report No.: 21104-BD. Hossain, M.Z., Islam M.T., Sakai, T. and Ishida, M., April, 2008, “Impact of Tropical Cyclones on Rural Infrastructures in Bangladesh”. Agricultural Engineering Internation-

al: the CIGR Ejournal. Invited Overview No. 2, Vol. X. Huq, M. A., 1986, Plants Names of Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Herbarium (BARC), Dhaka. IFI WATCH Bangladesh, December, 2006, The Development Disaster: Water logging in the South-west region of Bangladesh, Vol 3 No. 2,

Dhaka. Islam, T., 2006. Integrated Approach to Cyclone Wind Analysis and disaster planning for the Bangladesh coast, Ph.D. Disserta-

tion, Texas Tech University, December. Jodha, N.S., 1975, “Famine and famine policies: Some empirical evidence”, Economic and Political Weekly 10(41),

1609-23. Kates, R., 1978, “Risk assessment of environmental hazards”, Chichester, UK, Wiley. Krimsky, sheldon and D. Golding (eds.). 1992, Social Theories of Risk. Praeger, Westport. Lee, K. and A. Mills, 1983, “Economics of health in developing countries: a critical review”, In Lee, K. and Mills, A. (ed.). Oxford University

Pres, Oxford. Markowitz. Harry M., 1959 , Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification. of Investments, Wiley, Yale University Press, 1970, Basil Blackwell,

1991. Miah, Yousus, Md, Mannan, M. A. K., Quddus, G., Mahmud, M. A. M. and Baida, T., 2004, “Salinity on Cultivable Land and Its Effects on Crops”, Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 7 (8): 1322-1326,

2004. MoEF, 2005, National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh MoEF, October, 2002. Initial National Communication under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC), Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka. MoA, 1999, National Agricultural Policy, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh MPO, 1986, National Water Plan, Prepared for the Ministry of Irrigation, Water Development and Flood Control, GoB, UNDP

and World Bank by Harza Engineering Company International and Sir MacDonald and Partners. National Water Management Plan, 2001, WARPO, Dhaka Nehal Karim, Ph.D, 2005, “CYCLONIC STORMS IN THE COASTAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH: SOCIOECONOMIC IMPACT” Depart-

ment of Sociology, University of Dhaka. Paul, B.K., 1995, Quick Response Report no. 76, Farmers’ and Public Responses to the 1994-95 Drought in Bangladesh: A case

Study. Peter Drucker,


BIBLIOGRAPHY 1995, Peter Drucker, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker

Drucker, Peter F. (1999). Management Challenges for the 21st Century. New York: Harperbusiness. Ray, S., and D. Bhadra, 1993, “Nonparametric Test of Cost Minimizing Behavior: A Study of Indian Farms.” American Journal of Agricultural

Economics, 75(4):990-999. Renn, Ortwin,

1992, “Concepts of Risk: A Classification.” In Social Theories of Risk, ed. Sheldon Krimsky and Dominic Golding, Westport, CT: Praeger. Rashid, E. H., 1991, Geography of Bangladesh, The University Press Ltd, Dhaka. Richards, P., 1989, Agriculture as performance. In: Chambers, R., Pacey, A. and Thrupp, L-A. (eds.), Farmer First: Farmer

Innovation and Agricultural Research, pp. 39-43. London: Intermediate Technology Publications. Scooner, I., 1998, ‘Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis’, IDS Working Paper No 72. Scoones, I and Thompson, J., 1994. In: Beyond Farmer First Rural people's Knowledge, agricultural research and extension practice. London

Intermediate Technology Publication. Sen, A., 1993; 1997 Nussbaum, Martha and Amartya Sen, eds. 1993. The Quality of Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Sen, A. 1997, “Quality of life and Economic Evaluation: Welfare Economics and the quality of life”, Academic Economic

Papaers, Vol. 25 No. 3, The Institute of Economic Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan, R. O. C. Sen, A., 1981, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Oxford: Clarendon

Press. Serageldin, I. and A. Steer (eds), 1994, “Making Development Sustainable: From Concepts to Action.” Environmentally Sustainable Development

Occasional Paper Series No. 2. The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Shipton, Parker, 1990, “African Famines and Food Security: Anthropological Perspectives.” Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 353-94. Short, 1984, Nowotny and Eisikovic, 1990 cited in Krimsky and Golding, 1992. Tobin, James, 1958, “Liquidity Preference as Behavior towards Risk.” Review of Economic Studies 25:(1958):65-86. Von Neumann, J. and Morgenstern, O., 1947, “Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour", Princeton University Press. Walker, T. and N. Jodha, 1986, “How Small Farmers Adapt to Risk.” In P. Hazell, C. Pomareda, and A. Valdez., eds., Crop Insurance for

Agricultural Development, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. WARPO, 2005. National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA): Water, Coastal Areas,

Natural Disaster & Health Sector, Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO), Dhaka. Webb, P., Von Braun, J., 1994, Famine and Food Security in Ethiopia, Lessons for Africa. Wiley, London. Newspapers Moslem Uddin Ahmed, 27 October, 2008, “Water everywhere but not enough to drink”, The New Nation, Internet Edition. Shamim Ashraf, 28 February, 2005, “Salinity Increasing in SW Districts Alarmingly”, The Daily Star, Dhaka. Rahman, M.S., September 2001, Tropical Cyclone in Bangladesh, Quarterly Nirapad New letter 4th issue, Dhaka. Websites http://www.iczmpbangladesh.org/rep/coast_news/coast_news5. PDF (Last access on 25.12.08) http://www.rdrsbangla.net/Page.php?pageId=NDg5NTE= (Last access on 27.11.08) http:www.preventionweb.net Last access on (01.10.08) http://PreventionWeb_net.htm Last access on (10.11.08)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker�

http://www.iczmpbangladesh.org/rep/coast_news/coast_news5.%20PDF�

http://www.rdrsbangla.net/Page.php?pageId=NDg5NTE�

http://www.preventionweb.net/�

http://preventionweb_net.htm/�


BIBLIOGRAPHY http:www.thedailystar.net. (Last access on 27.10.08) http:www.unnayan.org (Last access on 27.10.08) http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADG744.pdf (Last access on 15.11.08) http://www.adrc.or.jp/publications (Last access on 16.11.08) http://www.dclalmonirhat.gov.bd/upazila.htm www.en.wikipedia.org (Last access on o5.10.08) www.bforest.gov.bd (Last access on o1.10.08) http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/flood2004/roumari.htm (Last access on 27.12.08)

http://www.thedailystar.net/�

http://www.unnayan.org/�

http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADG744.pdf�

http://www.adrc.or.jp/publications�

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/�

http://www.bforest.gov.bd/�

http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/flood2004/roumari.htm�

traditional coping strategies of rural people living in flood … · (ffiinnaall trreeppoorr t)bbyy...

Documents