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Bangladesh

Multistakeholder webinar on ‘Agricultural Policy-Practice Gap Assessment in the Haor Ecology of Bangladesh’

 

A multi-stakeholder webinar titled ‘Agricultural Policy-Practice Gap Assessment in the Haor Ecology of Bangladesh’ was successfully held on September 29th, 2024. Supported by the Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) and organized by the South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) in association with the Progyan Foundation for Research and Innovation (PFRI), the webinar focused on identifying the unique climate vulnerabilities of the Haor wetlands and exploring region-specific agricultural policy responses.
The webinar brought together agricultural scientists, policy experts, researchers, and practitioners to assess the widening gap between policy and practice in Haor-based agriculture, and to explore the urgent need for inclusive, adaptive, and climate-smart strategies.

 

Climate change impacts, particularly heat stress, cold spells, and flash floods, pose severe threats to paddy cultivation in the Haor region, which contributes over 16% of Bangladesh’s total rice production.

While national policies emphasize flood-tolerant crops, scientific projections highlight the urgent need for heat-tolerant rice varieties and improved early warning systems.

Agricultural development in Haor areas suffers from poor water management infrastructure, weak coordination among agencies, and a lack of region-specific adaptation planning.

Local farmers are often more climate-aware than assumed, but their voices remain underrepresented in policy formulation and technology design.

Speakers emphasized the value of indigenous rice varieties and the need for capacity building in both farming communities and the scientific ecosystem to implement crop modelling tools effectively.

Gender disparities, ecological degradation, and underdeveloped value chains further compound the livelihood vulnerabilities in the Haor belt.

Collaborative efforts between India and Bangladesh for real-time data sharing, especially for flood prediction, were recommended as a key regional priority.

The absence of a dedicated national wetland policy and inadequate attention to biodiversity, wildlife protection, and ecotourism in policy agendas were highlighted as major gaps.

Nature-based solutions, climate-adaptive scheduling, and localized crop insurance mechanisms must be integrated into future planning for Haor agriculture.

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