Agriculture is the main force of the economy of Bangladesh, so this sector that demands a concentrated focus. There is a growing demand in the community to ensure year round agriculture through crop diversification and effective water resource management.
ActionAid Bangladesh has implemented a community based adaptation project since 2008-2010 in above mentioned area to address climate induced problems through Gonogobeshona (GGT) (People Action Research). Through GonoGobeshona climate change adaptation program facilitate community to understand climate change vulnerability and enhance their planning, negotiation and implementing capacity.
To address the problems in Naogaon, GGT came with a solution–Pond re-excavation and new pond excavation. There are lots of ponds in that community but during dry period it is tough to retain water due to low depth. Besides, the community does not have capacity to dig those ponds.
Pond based agricultural schemes are being piloted under the project taking into account the following objectives –
a) To save the production of rain-feed crop from scarcity of natural irrigation in its vital flowering time by supplementary irrigation from the pond.
b) To cultivate crops like vegetables and others with minimum irrigation in those lands during the dry period, thus enhancing the resilience against disasters.
c) To pilot different types of drought tolerant crops as well as to introduce different environment and climate friendly technologies.