The Impact of Tidal River Management on Livestock in the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin

Abstract

Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin provides several wetlands which are resourceful for rearing livestock as to support coastal community and their livelihoods in the Southwest Bengal delta. Water-logging hampers rural livelihood by damaging agricultural crops, plant, trees, grazing land and reducing livestock. Primarily, Tidal River Management (TRM) is introduced by coastal community to manage tidal river-floodplain ecosystem by way of removing water-logging, increasing navigability of tidal river, improving agriculture and biodiversity of tidal basin, and progressing livestock which lead to human wellbeing. The study selects Bhaina tidal basin from Southwest Bengal delta to assess the impact of TRM on livestock and the contribution of livestock to households' income. The authors collected both quantitative and qualitative data through face to face interview, key informant interview and focus group discussion. This research finds that, households own greater number of livestock after TRM scenario than that of before TRM scenario. Duck achieves the top number (604) followed by hen (378) from bird species. In addition, cow encompasses the peak number (274) that tailed by goat number (162) from four-legged animal. Besides, households' income is reduced by 26% during TRM case due to effect of salinity and improved by 50% after TRM case considering before TRM case as the base. Sheep is a newly introduced species (found after TRM event) and buffalo and horse are the rare among selected eight species in the study area. Although grazing land is decreasing due to changing cropping patters, food and fodder are available by improving agriculture and terrestrial biodiversity. The study findings will support policy makers to operate TRM effectively for advancing agriculture, livestock and other ecosystem services to pastoral livelihood in the coastal region.

Spatial and seasonal variability of sediment accumulation potential through controlled flooding of the beels located in the polders of the Ganges‐Brahmaputra‐Meghna delta of Southwest Bangladesh

“…The resulting sediment deposition raised land surface of the beels inside the polders substantially by 0.2-1 m, but with large spatial variation in deposited amounts within a beel (Gain et al, 2017). Al Masud et al (2018) reported higher food productivity and household income from livestock at former TRM sites compared with elsewhere in the region. Since TRM results in a rise of the polder land surface, it may provide an opportunity to elevate and maintain land above future sea level in other sinking deltas around the world as well, when there is sufficient fluvial or estuarine sediment available (Brown et al, 2018).…”

Bangladesh farmers push for temporary flooding to correct Dutch polder failure

“…This flooding was more closely researched, and investigators found that income levels and food security level increased for most groups after TRM (Edrish, Yeasmin, & Rahman, ; Mutahara, ). Households own more livestock after TRM, particularly ducks and chickens (Masud, ).…”

Conflict of Resource Use Among Different Livelihood Group in Coastal Villages of South-Western Bengal Delta, Bangladesh

“…This region is the home of millions of people but the coastline is mostly irregular and consist of a series of river and canal network which continuously changing their courses, flow velocity and natural land formation [12][13][14]. Conversely, this area is the hub of recurrent hydro-climatic disasters, erratic rainfall and temperature change, water logging, salinity intrusion, diverse land use changes [15,16] and competitive resource consumption pattern [17][18][19].…”