Browsing by Author "Hassan, Md. Zahidul"

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Climate Change Induced Economic Transformation, Vulnerability and Adaptation in the Aila (Tropical Cyclone) Susceptible Areas of Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2015) Rahman, Md. Mizanoor; Hassan, Md. Zahidul
Bangladesh is a land of natural calamities. Due to locational disadvantage, especially situated at the tip of the funnel shaped Bay of Bengal on the south and at the foot of Himalayas on the north, every year it experiences a number of different types of natural calamities, such as flood, cyclone, river bank erosion, and drought etc. Literatures indicate that recently, frequency of these events has been increased due to climate change. As per spatial distribution of natural calamities, northern part is prone to flood, western part prone to drought, eastern part basically hilly region prone to flash flood and southern part prone to cyclone. The Southern part, along the coast of Bangladesh is the worst affected area to cyclone and its ultimate effects. Basically, economic sector is the hard hited among all other sectors. Tropical cyclone Aila tore the area in 2009 affected the livelihood of people. The study is an effort to discuss the vulnerability and adaptation strategy of the inhabitants in the light of economic change like occupation, income, expenditure capacity, savings, housing structures, general and agricultural land use etc. that taken place due to Aila. Necessary data and information were collected from both primary and secondary sources for the study, and to analysis and representation of collected data both quantitative and qualitative analysis and mapping techniques have been applied. For statistical analysis SPSS, image processing IRDAS IMAGIN 9.2, and mapping analysis ArcMap-ArcInfo software have been used. The research findings indicate that because of cyclone Aila, economy of the area have been taken down turn. Most of people were engaged with agriculture allied activities, but after Aila agricultural land has been converted into aquaculture. Consequently, people had to change less earning occupation such as daily labour, rickshaw puller, brickfield worker etc. As a result, people had to reduce all sorts of consumptions to cope with the changing situation. GOs and NGOs extended hand through limited opportunity to rebuilding house, dam, road, reforestation but not any income generate activities. So, the livelihood of the people is still vulnerable in terms of economy. This following research recommends to recover the vulnerable situation through creation of income opportunity in the study area. Key words: Cyclone Aila, Economic transformation, Land use change, Vulnerability, Adaptation
Land Suitability Analysis for Sustainable Agricultural Development in Rajshahi District of Bangladesh
(University of Rajshahi, 2017) Islam, Md. Asadul; Hassan, Md. Zahidul
Importance of land suitability analysis for sustainable agricultural development is unnoticed in Bangladesh for long time resulting in the stagnation of profit margin, economic benefit, yield, crop diversification and development in agriculture sector as well as socio-economic, political and cultural development of Bangladesh. However, the purposes of the present research were land suitability analysis for sustainable agricultural development in Rajshahi district of Bangladesh analyzing the current soil, irrigation water, climate, topography, floodability, and accessibility attributes and many other aspects of the study area. Besides, economic viability of currently cultivated major crops and cropping patterns and land suitability based cropping patterns are assessed. Land use changing patterns are analyzed and farmers’ perception levels are also measured for agriculture development. In this study, Rajshahi district of Bangladesh was the study area and Godagari upazila was selected through simple random sampling (SRS) which covers about 20 per cent area of the district. Soil, irrigation water, topography, and floodability samples and respondents for questionnaire survey and land suitability model output and classified image verification samples were selected using sample size determination formula and union wise samples were selected following probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. Climate data were used for 40 years (1975-2014) of the study area and accessibility data were generated using multiple ring buffer and Euclidian distance method in GIS technique. Data of economic viability of agricultural crops and farmers’ perception regarding land suitability and agriculture development were collected through questionnaire survey. Land use changes were analyzed considering soil properties of 1991 and 2015, crop cultivation areas of 1983-84, 1996, and 2008 by agriculture census data, agriculture land use changes using 5 images of 1977, 1988, 1996, 2008, and 2016 and cultural changes in different aspects of agriculture of the study area. Total six case studies- two from each of onion seed, cauliflower, and Thai guava cultivation were conducted to support the data. All properties of soil except pH and boron are below from the optimum value in the study area. Irrigation water attributes are within normal range though not in optimum level. Temperature is not a major problem but rainfall is insufficient for crops production. High land area dominates in the study region and flooding problem is very trifling. Accessibility is a major problem for Char Ashariadaha union which is separated by mighty river the Padma. Soil and climate are moderately suitable; irrigation water and floodability are predominantly suitable for agriculture in the study area. Topography and accessibility are found mainly low and moderate suitable for agriculture. The study locale is dominated by agriculture and agriculture is dominated by a few crops mainly rice. All unions are found moderately suitable for rice, wheat, maize, potato, chili crops cultivation and the whole study area is found moderately suitable for general agriculture. On the other hand, lentil, mustard, and onion crop cultivation are found moderately suitable in Basudevpur, Deopara, Gogram, Matikata, Rishikul, Godagari, Mohanpur, and Pakri union which cover 92.34 per cent land area and marginally suitable is found only in Char Ashariadaha union which covers only 7.66 per cent land. In land suitability model output, the accuracy figure was found from 87.50 to 92.85 per cent in field verification. Yield of almost all crops is lower in the study area than that of Northern Bangladesh. Among the generally cultivated 15 crops, per 33 decimals net returns from onion seeds and cauliflower cultivation are found worth about BDT 97574 and 26090 respectively which are very profitable and much more than rice which (rice) is cultivated in about 79 per cent land both in the study area and in Bangladesh. The next economically viable five crops are onion, brinjal, tomato, maize, and potato respectively on the basis of net return. On the other hand, rice is the economically least viable crop and next least viable five crops are mustard, wheat, lentil, chili, and pulses respectively. However, the dominance of rice in cropping patterns in the study area and Bangladesh is not economically viable and a key obstacle for the development of agriculture, socio-economic development of farmers as well as rural areas of Bangladesh. Land suitability based cropping patterns are highly profitable than presently cultivated rice based cropping patterns. It is possible to increase net returns about BDT 511.74, 2398.54, 9512.49, and 97930.14 crores for the study area, Rajshahi district, Rajshahi division, and Bangladesh respectively changing only cropping patterns and agriculture sector alone could contribute a lot to develop Bangladesh if land suitability based cropping patters are followed. Case studies of onion seed, cauliflower, and Thai guava cultivation show that these three crops cultivation are profitable but cauliflower has low sustainability risks and onion seed and Thai guava cultivation have high sustainability risks. pH, organic matter, and zinc level have been increased but nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and boron of soil have decreased significantly in the study area from 1991 to 2015. HYV aus, HYV boro rice, maize, jute, potato, spices, fruits, oil seeds, and vegetables cultivation area have been increased but HYV aman, wheat, sugarcane, pulses cultivation area are decreasing. Agriculture land cultivation areas have been increased noticeably from 1977 to 2016. The classification error matrix of 2016 Landsat 8 image in 56 spots, field verification shows that the classification accuracy is 87.50 per cent. Chi-square value was found 285.430, Kendall’s tau .758 and Kappa statistic was .809 that show good agreement between classified image and field data. Cultural changes are occurred noticeably in agriculture in the study area. Farmers hold medium and low level of perception regarding land suitability and agriculture development in the study area which are not conducive for sustainable agricultural development and need to be elevated for the development of agriculture. The study area has immense potentialities of Thai guava, bablah, moringa, flowers, mango etc. cultivation in agriculture land and fish cultivation in 1162 ha low land area. Land suitability based crop cultivation, crop diversification and cropping pattern changes, emphasis on cultivation of profitable non-traditional crops, application of GIS and RS, e-agriculture, use of organic and green manure fertilizer, fish cultivation and other practices in 1162 ha low lands, establishing agriculture market and cold storages, elevation of farmers’ perception level etc. are few important ways for sustainable agricultural development in the study area.
Morphological Changes in Teesta River Basin: Impact and Adaptation Strategies in the Northern Bangladesh
(2020) Sultana, Mst. Rebeka; Hassan, Md. Zahidul; Paul, Shitangsu Kumar
Bangladesh is located at the foothills of the mighty Himalayas and the landscape of the country is formed with the morphological changes of the Ganges- Brahmaputra-Meghna river system. The Teesta is one of the main tributary of the Brahmaputra river which originates from the glaciers of Sikkim, India. The Teesta river flows through the northeastern region of Northern Bangladesh which is considered as the soul of the entire region of Rangpur division. Physiographically, the region is recognized as Teesta Floodplain and designated as an important earthquake zone. Morphological Changes are recurrent incident in the study area. Aggradation and degradation processes of the Teesta river shaped different morphological features in the river basin. Flood, erosion, sediment deposition, channel migration are the main events causing river morphology change. All these fluvial-morphological hazards are responsible for distresses of thousands of people of the Teesta riverine community. The study area lies beneath the plains of the Himalayas and it is the inherent cause for flood and river bank erosion in the Teesta river basin. The unstable river bank and its changing morphology turned the region least developed economy and the area is known as “Monga prone area” (“Monga” refers to seasonal unavailable employment opportunity and reduction of purchasing capacity of essential goods which leads people to become starved) as well as the community is termed as “Mofij”(The poor people of Teesta river basin). Catastrophic flood, ruinous river bank erosion, recurrent channel shifting situation becomes part and parcel of everyday life of the community adjacent to the Teesta river bank. The Teesta riverine people are helpless, homeless and landless particularly the poor‟s are the most affected and vulnerable groups who are loosening their lives, property and livelihoods. Morphological change interrupts their normal life and they turn into poor, poorer and poorest.---