Impact of land area change on the livelihood of farmers of coastal Bangladesh: a case study on Bhola

Abstract

Bangladesh is exposed to disasters mainly due to her topographical location. Calamities such as floods, river bank erosion, cyclone, tornado, cold waves, arsenic contamination in ground water, water logging, salinity intrusion etc. are gradually intensifying by climate change and combining risks for the coastal people in Bangladesh. Such calamity took peals less in lives but more in livelihood as agricultural land and homesteads along with other livelihood options which are banished. The current study is concerned with climate change related menaces and risks that affects the occupants of coastal Bangladesh. The study outcomes revealed that the climate change has gradually affected the livelihood of coastal people in many aspects including losses and damage in crop cultivation, inadequacy of pure drinking water, extreme poverty, homestead land and natural assets etc. It has also generated a state of unemployment among the people of coastal communities. As a consequence, the affected people are losing their means of livelihoods and enforced to take numerous alternative means of livelihoods to cope with the adverse impact of climate change related catastrophes. The study detects the alternative adaptation strategies adapted by the affected coastal inhabitants in coastal Bangladesh. The present paper unveils that the coastal community people try to solve their problems through adopting and exploring alternative employments.