Tag: climate

River erosion has affected Bangladesh’s low-lying lands for millennia. The rivers change course over the years and cause loss of land and assets for people who live near the riverbanks. Climate change has added additional complexities to these natural processes and made poor and vulnerable people much worse off. Together, these processes continue to widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Bangladesh remains highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with flooding affecting 20-70% of the country annually. Women and poor farmers are often the worst hit, despite having a minor role in causing climate change. Even though farmers and local communities know of changing weather patterns and take steps to mitigate the effects, they lack adequate financial resources, which limits how well they can adapt to these changes.

Smallholder farmers in the flood-prone state of Bihar need capital and support from system-level actors to increase their climate resilience. This blog identifies seven critical factors that can enable the building of climate resilience and adaptive strategies of smallholder farmers.

Smallholder farmers are vulnerable to climate change in many different ways. We analyzed the lives and livelihoods of different types of farmers to assess how individuals and families either succeed to or fail to adapt to climate change and environmental stresses. We look at the role financial services, education, gender roles and responsibilities, and social norms play to determine resilience to climate change.