Yes, this a tale, a tale of new hope which talks about the life of the famers of the coastal villages, talks about the suffering in agriculture practices due to climate change impacts and lastly talks about the new hope for the survival. Charlathimara, one of the village of Patharghata upaila under Borguna District. Like the other coastal village, this village is also the victim of climate change adverse impacts. The sufferings of the coastal famers are ineffaceable because of the high intensity of salt in the soil especially after super cyclone Aila and Sidr. Farmers were not getting desired production from their field due to salinity in soil and having no irrigation facilities especially in dry season. Farmers were getting hopeless where the small piece of land is the only hope and source of income. If I describe with the language of Lal Mia, what is “We had to die by starving or move to another place. All of our paddy field were inundated with saline water in 2007 by super-cyclone SIDR. Our livelihoods were heavily depends on agriculture but due to regular high tide, lack of irrigation facilities, lack of appropriate water canal and sluice gate, our agriculture field remained fallow.”

Already I said, this is a tale of new hope, a tale of survival.  A national NGO Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) came with a comprehensive solution with participation of the farmers and local government for 95 Acre agriculture land of this village in 2017. The solution includes sluice gate repairing to store water and close the saline water intrusion, canal excavation for preserving rain water, three 5000 litres water holding capacity tank setting up in suitable places, solar power motor to transfer water from canal to water tanks and also the salt tolerant rice like BIRI-54 and other winter vegetables varieties which requires less irrigation like sunflower, pulses. This joint effort from farmers, local government and CCDB brings a new courage for the 100 farmers this village to combat with the climate change adverse impact. This adaption solution makes the agriculture land climate resilient for all the season. When the big question was to sustain the solution for the long run, a community based organization of this village “Community Climate Resilient Center (CCRC)” extends their hands for the further maintenance and management.

It was a regular day of the month February 2020 when I was visited this place and surprised to see the growing field with different crops. Really I am impressed to see the smiling faces of the farmers and the words they repeated “Now we are getting our desired crop production round the year”. Yes, this adaption solution makes the agriculture land productive for all season with high yield and contribute in creating a climate resilient community. Wishes for the best of the farmers of the Charlathimara village and thanks for providing a successful example for up-scaling for others.