Rural Heritage April/May 2026

Chars and villages are washed away, sometimes in hours. The loss is not just physical, it’s cultural, social,

Rice cultivation is a significant source of methane (CH 4 ) emissions. The flooded fields produce, under anaerobic conditions, methane by methanogenic microorganisms. This greenhouse gas contributes significantly to climate change as it is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) which is largely released by combustion processes. To reduce methane emissions and improve water efficiency, FRIENDSHIP has introduced the so-called AWD (Alternate Wetting and Drying) method for winter rice cultivation. This technique intermittently drains the fields, reducing anaerobic conditions and thereby lowering methane emissions, while maintaining yield. The first chemical fertilizer came into use in the Bangladesh’s agriculture in 1951 with the introduction of 2,698 metric tons of ammonium sulphate. But its use started increasing steadily only from the mid-sixties and paralleled the introduction and expansion of modern crop varieties accompanied by the development of irrigation facilities (Islam & Mujeri, 2021). The increasing trend in fertilizer use, particularly urea-N, continues. In the past, fertilizers were handled by the public sector and heavy subsidies were given, in particular to TSP and MP fertilizers. In 1992/93, privatization in this area was introduced and subsidies to fertilizers have now been drastically reduced. The marketing of poor quality and adulterated fertilizers has increased (Islam & Mujeri, 2021). Chemical fertilizer production involves synthesizing compounds. In contrast to phosphate and potassium fertilizers, which are made from mined rock and salts, nitrogen fertilizer is primarily produced by the high pressure, and high-temperature Haber-Bosch process to combine atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen. In addition to the high energy consumption and the associated carbon dioxide emissions,nitrogen fertilizers also cause significant nitrous oxide emissions (N 2 O) on the fields. As greenhouse gas with a 265 times higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide not only contributes to climate change, but also to ozone depletion in the stratosphere. In addition to all climate related issues, Bangladesh's government is supposed to have a severe public health crisis in the coming years as well. Currently, air pollution is high due to garment and brick factory emissions, but also because of agricultural pesticides. Air pollution increases morbidity and mortality from respiratory infections, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and caused already an estimated 6.7 million death in 2019

and emotional (Parvin, 2016). Agriculture under pressure

In the early 1970s, after its independency from West Pakistan, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was a food-deficient country with a population of about 75 million. Today, the population has more than doubled, and Bangladesh is self-sufficient at least in rice production, which has tripled over the past three decades.Bangladesh is now the 4th largest rice producer globally. Bangladesh’s agriculture sector contributes about 17 per cent of the country’s GDP (Rahman, 2017). However, the agricultural sector is under pressure from shrinking arable land and volatile weather. Changing temperatures are damaging the coastal rice production areas. Distinguish challenges for the Char area is unstable land, poor irrigation in dry periods, and limited access to quality farm inputs. The total rice production in Bangladesh is projected to be reduced every year by 7.4% until 2050. But there is a great need for increasing food production to feed the projected population of 184 million in 2030, 197 million in 2040 and 204 million in 2050. Instead of decreasing, the total food production would have to be increased by 43% until 2050 (Bokhtiar & Samsuzzaman, 2023). The country is therefore caught in a dilemma. The National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh 2023 2050 acknowledges that effective medium- and long term adaptation strategies are crucial and aims for a viable path to climate-resilient development and reduced climate risks (Bangladesh Biosafety Portal, 2023). However, this process will hardly be successful without foreign support within a global framework and operationalization on micro level, which brings organizations like FRIENDSHIP into play. Since there is no unused land to be brought under cultivation, the current strategies for raising crop yield and increasing cropping intensity are the use of irrigation, massive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as HYV seeds (Jabbar, 1985). But there’s the rub. Bangladesh ratified the Paris Agreement from 2015 and plans to reduce emissions related to rice fields, chemical fertilizer production, enteric fermentation, and manure management. Additionally, Bangladesh plans to increase forest cover by 150,000 hectares in coastal islands and degraded areas.

Rural Heritage

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