Bangladeshi farmers adapt to climate change

OneWorld: Although illiterate Bangladeshi villagers don't know the climate change lingo, many have shown an awareness of the situation, using local knowledge to innovate and adapt to the natural changes. Constant fighting with poverty and floods are a common reality of grassroots Bangladesh. Along with development challenges, preparing for and adapting to climate changes has been added to the burden of the rural poor.

The people of Vobodaho and Kashoppur in the Jessore district of southwest Bangladesh are continuously striving to deal with changes to their surroundings. Since 1960, the region's nature has been affected by aggressive man-made changes, which have led to high salinity levels and arsenic pollution in waterways, and water logging of much of the land. But unusual flooding patterns are now adding tremendous suffering in three parts of the district. Because of water logging, most of the crop land in this rural area is now underwater. Farmers can not cultivate as they normally would…

Map by CIA World Factbook, Wikimedia Commons