Assessing the scope for promoting climate resilient agriculture in the Indian Sundarban Delta: A SWOT-AHP analysis

The Sundarban delta region, a unique coastal ecosystem is highly vulnerable to climate change threats such as sea level rise, cyclonic storms, floods, tidal surges and coastal erosion. Extreme poverty and hunger, limited livelihood options and economic backwardness lead to miserable life for the rural poor in this estuarine and coastal environment. Agriculture is the main economic activity in this region with low productivity and high exposure to climate change. To overcome these challenges, farmers are practicing various strategies such as adoption of integrated farming, organic farming, diversified and floating agriculture, crop rotation, salt resistance varieties, indigenous seed banks and rainwater harvesting to promote climate resilient agriculture (CRA). In this context, an attempt has been made in this paper to analyse the challenges and opportunities of CRA in the Indian Sundarban delta. This study is mainly based on primary data collected from Sagar, Gosaba and Patharpratima C.D. Blocks in this delta and 60 households from each C.D. Block, altogether 180 households have been surveyed. The SWOT-AHP has been applied to analyse the scope for promoting CRA in the study area. This study has found that the overall scores of positive factors (i.e. strengths and opportunities) are considerably higher than the negative factors (i.e. weaknesses and threats) for promoting CRA. An effective policy to strengthen CRA, particularly focusing on integrated farming, organic farming and rainwater harvesting in the study area is needed to sustain agriculture, rural livelihoods as well as management of Sundarban coastal ecosystem.