Staff Reporter :
Speakers in a seminar have said that the country incurs loss of Tk33000 crore annually in agriculture sector in coastal areas due to salinity.
They also identified soil salinisation in coastal areas as a major risk from climate change and the soil salinity has increased significantly in many areas of Barisal, Chittogram and Khulna districts in the last one decade.
And the coastal agriculture is losing about Tk33,000 crore per year only for salinity, they said.
The seminar titled “Impact of Increased Salinity and Climate Change on Coastal Agricultural Land” organized by Bangladesh Agriculture Journalists Forum (BAJF) and Satkhira district administration at a local auditorium on Saturday.
In his key note paper, Shahnuare Shaid Shahin, General Secretary of the BAJF, said “The salinity land was 8.33 lakh hectores in 1973, which is now 10.56 lakh hectores of lands. And due to the salinity, uncultivated land is increasing day-by-day. The economic damage in the coastal area is also increasing.”
The amount of the loss is around Tk33,000 crore, he said.
Mohammad Humyun Kabir, Deputy Commissioner of the district, said, this scenario of gradual salinity intrusion into the coastal areas of the country is a threat to the primary production system, coastal biodiversity and human health.
“Salinity is casting a huge impact on the environment. Production of various crops has declined due to excessive salinity in soil,” he said
The locals, however, blame unplanned shrimp cultivation as the main cause of salinity, he said adding, “Due to decrease in sweet water and fall in saline water flow from the ocean, the salinity has increased in the region.”
It projects a median increase of 26 percent in salinity by 2050, with about 55 percent in the most affected areas.
