MOHAMMAD Iliasuddin was once honoured as an ‘ideal farmer’ in the locality. He is the quintessential generational farmer. Ilias has little idea of any other livelihoods and began to learn the ropes even when he was a toddler and his grandfather looked after a patch of land. But his farming schedules have all gone wrong, he says. ‘I know I am supposed to sow by a certain time or date. That is what my forefathers have been doing but then for several years the temperature and weather does not just seem right for what we have been doing traditionally. It is exasperating as I do not know how to cope with the problems.’

   The dirt track snaking into the village of Telkupi, winds though mango orchards where the foliage is as thick as tropical rainforests. Sunlight barely touches the ground. ‘But we have lost most of the mangoes to the storms,’ said Ilias. The dirt road was still muddy from rain and had become difficult for vehicles to ply. ‘We have serious problems when the water comes in the monsoons. Often it is up to our waists during the monsoon. An otherwise 45 minute trip takes more than several hours during such turbulent times, and it becomes very difficult to take the produce to the markets.’

   Ilias says his wheat crops had been damaged during the winter. ‘We have had a fairly good harvest but it would have been even better if the temperature did not keep fluctuating as it did.’ He says this year wheat was damaged because it had rained just when the wheat had flowered. ‘But the most surprising thing was that fields were engulfed in thick fog, long after the winter months had gone and the weather was supposed to warm up. But during those times and it was just about two weeks ago, the nights actually felt chilly. I had put on full sleeves when I had to go to the nearby market one evening.’ Ilias thinks the fog was the main reason behind a bad wheat harvest and the bacterial leaf blight in paddy that broke out across the country during the boro season.

ZONE
   Active Ganges Floodplain
   
   CHANGES
   * Changes in rainfall pattern (increased in monsoon and decreased in winter)
   * Increased temperatures in monsoon and winter
   * Humidity
   
   POTENTIAL IMPACTS
   * Flood
   * River Erosion
   * Cold waves