Agricultural Drought in Bangladesh - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 313

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A gricultural Drought in Bangladesh
A HSAN U. AHMED, ANWAR IQBAL,

A ND ABDUL M. CHOUDHURY

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Bangladesh is globally known as a flood-vulnerable country—an almost
flat land with too much water. In terms of annual per capita availability
of water resources, it ranks among the highest in the world. But a lesser-
known disaster that affects a significant proportion of its fertile land is
drought. The occurrence of droughts may largely be attributed to two
recent phenomena: (1) an extensive adoption of high yielding varieties
(HYV) of paddy (i.e., rice) in the drier months; and (2) constraints faced
in water availability during premonsoon months due to upstream water
withdrawal from river systems. Up to 15% of the total cultivable land
(about 0.9 million ha) now experiences droughts of moderate to very severe
intensity, once in every two years (Iqbal and Ali, 2001). This chapter
examines the causes of droughts in the context of the country's complex
water regime, the implications of droughts, and the ways to monitor them.
About 80% of annual monsoon rainfall over the country occurs during
the period from June to the first week of October. The western zones
of the country receive less rainfall, averaging about 1400 mm, compared
to the national average of 2150 mm, and therefore the susceptibility to
droughts in the western zones of the country is higher. Table 24.1 provides
a chronological overview of areas and populations in Bangladesh affected
by droughts during the 1950-79 period.
The economy of Bangladesh significantly depends on agriculture. More
than 63% of 130 million people, confined within a territory of 147,750
km 2 , find employment in agriculture (MOF, 2003). Although the share
of the crop production in the gross domestic product (GDP) has been
declining steadily in recent times, dropping from 24.66% in 1990-91 to
18.58% in 2002-03, it still is the predominant economic activity of the
majority of the people (Ahmad and Ahmed, 2002). More than 80% of the
households in rural Bangladesh are directly dependent on the production
of various crops.

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