Drought

Every five years, Bangladesh is affected by the major country-wide droughts. However, local droughts occur regularly and affect crop production. The agricultural drought, linked to soil moisture scarcity, occurs at different stages of crop growth, development and reproduction. Monsoon failure often brings famine to the affected regions and as a result crop production reduces drastically. Northwestern regions of Bangladesh are particularly exposed to droughts. A strong drought can cause greater than 40% damage to broadcast aus. During the kharif season, it causes significant destruction to the t.aman crop in approximately 2.32 million ha every year. In the rabi season,

about 1.2 million ha of agricultural land face droughts of different magnitudes. Apart from the agricultural loss, droughts have important effect on livestock population, land degradation, health and employment.