As the global climate continues to change and extreme weather events become increasingly common, it is vital that policymakers around the world use everything at their disposal to mitigate and adapt to new risks – particularly when it comes to agriculture. This is clear in Bangladesh, where a rich bank of nature-based solutions and indigenous knowledge offers diverse methods and tools for managing natural resources in the face of climate uncertainty.
Climate change poses a major threat to Bangladesh. Extreme weather events like droughts, cyclones, and floods are becoming increasingly frequent and intense. Climate-induced extremes affect people’s lives and livelihoods, shaping agriculture, health systems, water/sanitation systems, and security. While this is the case all over the world, such risks are particularly acute in Bangladesh.
Yet, Bangladesh is also rich in both nature-based solutions and indigenous knowledge. This means there are numerous methods and practices for forecasting and dealing with extreme weather and other disasters woven into Bangladeshi culture. This is the result of centuries of human interaction with the local environment and climate.
Nature-based solutions and indigenous and local knowledge are terms used to describe the wisdom, techniques, approaches, skills, practices, philosophies, and uniqueness of knowledge within a given culture. These ideas and behaviors are developed by local communities over many years and are based on an intimate understanding of unique contexts.
In particular, indigenous and local knowledge is generally transmitted via oral and practical traditions. For climate change adaptation and mitigation, with the need for resilience across multiple sectors, people from different geographies have different knowledge and so practice different skills. This means that across various climate hotspots, there is a broad range of climate change adaptation and mitigation methods and techniques across different communities.
Nature-based solutions and indigenous knowledge for agricultural water resilience
Bangladesh has a long history of using indigenous methods and tools for agricultural water management. These practices play a crucial role in irrigation, flood control, drought resilience, and salinity management, offering sustainable, low-cost ways to adapt to climate change.
Inundation and drought management: Two widely used traditional systems are Jolpotti (also called Koloshi) and Kuni. The Jolpotti system delivers water to crops through earthen pots and jute ribbons, an efficient and climate-resilient method particularly suited for crops like homestead vegetables, watermelon and cucumber. Kuni refers to small water bodies created within paddy fields. These reservoirs store water for irrigation during dry periods and also support fish, ducks, and even livestock, enabling a diversified and sustainable farming system.
In drought-prone regions like the Barind area, farmers use Kunala (also known as Kulala or Kulayla) to preserve irrigation water and thereby protect crops from pests such as rats. Mulching is another common practice in which crop residues or straw cover the soil to reduce evaporation, regulate soil temperature, and conserve moisture, making it especially effective for potatoes and other heat-sensitive crops. Farmers also rely on water wells to tap into groundwater when surface water sources run dry.
Salinity and tidal management: In salinity-affected areas, farmers use traditional practices to protect crops and build resilience. Kol creates layered mud aisles to block saltwater intrusion, while Chemot employs bamboo and tin to make rust-resistant tools. Konkona involves digging deep rainwater harvesting pits for irrigation during dry spells, and Kaite Bera serves as a barrier against tidal surges and livestock damage. Integrated Kuni systems combine rice cultivation with fish, ducks, and vegetables, fostering a sustainable and diversified farming ecosystem.
Incorporating indigenous practices into modern agriculture and land management
These practices are more than survival strategies; they are adaptive systems that blend water conservation with food security. By forecasting weather patterns, regulating soil moisture, and preventing crop damage from salinity, indigenous methods strengthen community resilience to climate variability.
Despite their proven effectiveness, many of these practices remain undocumented or overlooked in favor of modern technologies. This risks in interrupting the transmission of valuable knowledge between generations. Blending indigenous systems with modern innovations offers an opportunity to create stronger, climate-resilient agricultural systems in Bangladesh.
To achieve this, policymakers, educators, and communities must document, promote, and integrate traditional practices into adaptation planning. In doing so, Bangladesh can draw upon its cultural heritage while equipping its farmers with sustainable solutions to the growing challenges of climate change.
There are, of course, gaps between indigenous and scientific knowledge. This stems from differences in contexts and underlying philosophies, with scientific knowledge often regarded as universal while indigenous knowledge is usually seen as culturally specific. This makes the integration of these types of knowledge challenging, with power disparities, marginalization, the absence of mutual frameworks, and the inclination of scientific methods to take indigenous and nature-based solutions data out of context, creating further barriers.
Bridging these differences could lead to comprehensive and sustainable solutions to issues such as climate change, promoting culturally relevant innovations where rural, indigenous, and agrarian communities – including in Bangladesh – are engaged as equal collaborators within research.