Amid the skyrocketing prices of daily essentials, including vegetables, in kitchen markets across the country, growers in Manikganj district are worried about counting huge losses due to low production of chili caused by extreme drought. The chilies of Harirampur and Shibalaya upazilas in the district are known for chili production. In previous years, these regions not only met local demand but also exported to other districts and even overseas. But this year, most chili farmers in the district are experiencing poor yields, with plants wilting and leaves curling up. No new flowers or fruits have been seen on the plants, leaving farmers disappointed. According to the local Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), a total of 3,717 hectares of land have been brought under green chili cultivation this season, which is 176 hectares more than the previous year. DAE sources blamed excessive heat and a lack of timely rainfall for the poor yield. Samsuddin, a farmer in Harirampur upazila, said, “I planted chilies on two bighas of land, and initially, the yield was good, but due to oversupply, the price was low, around Tk 40 per kg. However, as the drought appeared and the crop field started to suffer damage, the price surged to Tk 150-160 per kg.” He also said that he managed to sell chilies worth Tk one lakh and made a profit of around Tk 20,000. Sherpur flood causes Tk 600 crore losses in agriculture, fisheries Nur Hossain, a chili grower, said he cultivated green chilies on 4.5 bighas of land after borrowing Tk 30,000. He is now frustrated over the poor yield and the damage to his chili fields due to drought. Like him, many farmers in these areas are also affected and are now worried about how to recoup their losses caused by the damage. Abdur Rahman, another chili farmer from Basta village, said despite several phases of irrigation, the extreme heat continued to damage the crops, and even the surviving plants are not producing chilies. He has yet to harvest even a single maund from his fields. Afsar Uddin, of Borongail village in Shibalaya upazila, said that despite spending Tk 40,000 on seedlings, fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation, he is harvesting less than two kilograms of chilies per day, instead of the expected two maunds. Farmers said the shortage of chilies has driven prices up dramatically. In various wholesale markets, the price of green chilies now ranges from Tk 350 to Tk 380 per kg. Local wholesalers report that the production decline has created a severe supply crunch, with most chilies now being sourced from other districts like Kushtia, Jhenaidah, Meherpur, and Chuadanga. Additionally, imported Indian chilies are being brought in through Letters of Credit (LCs) to meet the demand. Magura residents in distress as prices of daily essentials skyrocket Wholesale traders at the Jagirbandar Dhaleshwari wholesale market said that due to the shortage of the local variety of green chilies, the price of chilies has become dearer. Abdus Sattar, a wholesale trader, said, “Wholesalers from Dhaka and other markets depend on the chilies we supply. If imports from India stop for even a day, prices double. Moreover, half of the imported chilies arrive rotten, which further drives up the price.” Currently, retail prices of green chilies have surged to Tk 500-520 per kg due to the high wholesale costs. Dr. Rabiah Noor Ahmed, deputy director of the local DAE, said, "The continuous heatwave has significantly impacted chili farmers in Manikganj. They failed to get their desired production due to the lack of rain in time. However, the situation could improve if the weather becomes favorable. We've also sought advice from the Spice Research Center in Bogura to address the leaf curl disease."

The Bangladesh government has set ambitious goals to expand the country’s tree cover from 22.37% to 25% of total land area by 2030. Forest coverage is also targeted to increase from 14.1% to 16%. Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury shared these objectives with UNB. “The government has adopted the National Action Program for Combating Desertification, Land Degradation, and Drought for 2015-2024,” the minister told UNB.  8.33 crore trees to be planted this year during monsoon: Environment secretary In alignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 15 and the decisions of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) COP-13, Bangladesh aims to achieve 'Land Degradation Neutrality' by 2030. A national roadmap for addressing land degradation from 2021 to 2041 has also been developed.

With the prospect of a sixth consecutive failed rainy season in the east and Horn of Africa, Kenya's president is hoping the heavens will finally open with the help of a national day of mass prayer on Tuesday. William Ruto announced the plans for the country's first ever day of prayer on Sunday at a service in the drought-stricken city of Nakuru, some 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital Nairobi. It follows a joint call by the country's spiritual leaders to dedicate an entire day to prayer to ease drought conditions in the nation. Ruto’s own ambitious economic revival strategy for the country is also dependent on a successful rainy season. “As a government we have set out elaborate plans for food security, we have seeds, ample fertilizer, and water harvesting strategies including dams. We now need God to send us the rain,” Ruto said. “I urge all people from all faiths ... to pray for our country." Kenya and other east African nations have been experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in decades, causing crop failure, loss of livestock, wildlife and biodiversity, and malnutrition. Domestic agriculture is a large part of Kenya's economy. The U.N. humanitarian agency has termed the ongoing drought in the region a “rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.” Meteorologists say human-caused climate change has been exacerbating the extreme conditions. “It is time we started including climate change as factor in our development plans," Evans Mukolwe, former director of the Kenyan and U.N. weather agencies, told The Associated Press. "The current drought which we warned about some years ago has wider ramifications on the social economic conditions of the region including peace, security, and political stability.” Mukolwe added that climate change has contributed to below average rainy seasons in the region for about three decades. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development's climate center said that since 2020, five rainy seasons have failed, affecting over 50 million people. The center will release its projections for the long rains season, typically from March to May, later in February. Early projections from other meteorological groups are not optimistic. Around the world people from different faiths have often sought divine intervention for rain or other favorable weather. Last summer Milan's Archbishop made a pilgrimage to three churches in hopes of ending the country's dry spell and Utah's governor called for citizens to pray for rain ahead of a weekend of extreme heat. Some Kenyans intend to heed the president’s call. Nairobi business owner Millicent Nyambura said she supported the idea, “even though it will affect my colleagues in the flower business who expect to boost sales on Valentine's Day.” ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A debacle in Aman paddy production is raising fears of an upcoming food crisis in Bagerhat. This year, rainfall in Bagerhat was 489mm less than last year. As a result, although the Aman season is nearing its end, around 40 percent of agricultural land in the district is lying uncultivated due to a drought-like situation. Lack of water is making it hard for farmers to plant Aman seedlings, and those who’ve already planted the seedlings are watching their crops becoming yellow and drying up. Read: Drought-like situation frustrates Aman growers in Naogaon Amid such a situation, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is thinking of bringing changes to the paddy growing process and artificially inducing rainfall. According to the DAE, there are a total of 2,44,328 farming families in Bagerhat. The season for planting Aman seedlings runs between July 1 and September 15. This year, the government had set a target to cultivate 2,66,980 metric tons of Aman paddy in 74,425 hectares of land, among which only 41,000 hectares of land has been cultivated till now. Besides, Bagerhat has witnessed 2538mm rain from May to August this year, which was 3027mm during the same period in the previous year. This means that there has been 489mm less rain in the district this season, which has affected the production of Aman paddy to a great extent. While visiting Bagerhat’s Kochua and Fakirhat upazilas, UNB found that cracks and weeds have emerged in all the paddy fields there. Farmers, worried about food shortage, were trying to save their seedlings through irrigation. The same scenario prevailed in the district’s Sadar, Sharankhola and Mollarhat upazilas too. Sheikh Asadur Rahman, a local farmer, plants paddy in five acres of land every year. He runs his family by consuming and selling the rice grown on his land. This year, Asad is facing dual crises. While the seedbed that he had prepared for the first time got wasted due to the water crisis, the seedbed that he prepared the second time is being eaten up by domestic animals. “Seedlings can’t be implanted on dry land. I couldn’t implant any seedlings this season due to a lack of water. The Aman farming season is nearing its end, which means I won’t be able to cultivate any paddy this year. I don’t know how I will survive,” Asad said. Swapan Das, Chairman of Fakirhat Upazila Parishad, has seen the farming methods of many countries. While talking to UNB, he provided some ideas to mitigate the farming crisis that is going on in the district. Read: Scanty rains worry Aman, Jute growers in Thakurgaon “New variants of paddy have to be invented through conducting research on water and soil. Solar energy has to be used in ensuring water supply through irrigation. Besides, subsidies in the current method of irrigation have to be increased and the price of electricity has to be lowered,” said Swapan. Md Azizur Rahman, Deputy Director of Bagerhat’s Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), suggested water pumps to be used in paddy farming to deal with the water crisis. “To mitigate the losses, we’ve advised the farmers to cultivate the BR-23 variant of paddy and irrigate their lands using water pumps. Currently, a total of 4,500 water pumps are running in the district,” Azizur said. Azizur added that the period for implanting seedlings has been extended to September 30. “We have to wait till the harvesting period to know whether the government will miss its target for Aman production this year or not,” added Azizur.

Farmers in the coastal district of Khulna are a worried lot because of something they had no control over -- drought. With aridity delaying the Aman paddy cultivation process by nearly one-and-a-half months, the 80,000-plus farmers in the district fear that they may not be able to even recover the production cost this year. According to the department of agricultural extension (DoAE), only 16,055 hectares of land have so far been cultivated with Aman paddy -- barely one-fifth of the targeted 93,070 hectares. According to the weather department, almost four to five times less rainfall was recorded this year in Khulna as compared to last year. Read: Jute growers paying for drought that resulted in discoloured fibre In 2021, a total of 388.89 mm of rainfall was recorded in June, 506 mm in July and 213 mm in August. But this year, 94.36 mm of rainfall was recorded in June, 91.27 mm in July, and 161.19 mm till August 23. In the current season, 3,630 hectares of land in the district have been cultivated with Aush paddy, 1,316 hectares with jute, 35 hectares with tomato, 273 hectares with watermelon, 295 hectares with beans, and 8,265 hectares with winter vegetables. Farmers say Aman paddy needs plenty of water. "I only know how I am managing water to irrigate my 10 bighas of land to keep the planted beans alive,” said Abu Hanif Morol, a farmer from Kharnia village of Dumuria upazila. Farmers of Bamandia, Panchpota, Gonali, Bhadradia and Tipna villages are irrigating their Aman fields with water from the Bhadra river -- but channelising the river water is increasing their production costs. Md Hafizur Rahman, deputy director of Khulna DoAE, said Aman is being cultivated with water from the river in Fultola, Terokhada, Rupsha, Batiaghata, Dumuria, Dighalia and Dakop upazilas.  "Meanwhile, in Paikgacha and Koira upazilas, farmers were unable to use the river water as it is still too saline," he said. Read: Drought-like situation frustrates Aman growers in Naogaon “Already 100% seedbeds for Aman have been prepared but the production will still be less than projected due to a drought-like situation, " said the Khulna DoAE official. Lack of rainfall has slowed down the entire Aman cultivation process, said Paikgacha upazila agriculture officer, Jahangir Alam."Farmers have been advised to get in touch with the Rural Electrification Board." Mizanur Rahman, deputy assistant agriculture officer of Dakop upazila, said apart from the delay in Aman cultivation, production of watermelons and vegetables has also been hit in Pankhali union.

Although local markets in Faridpur district, better known as hub of jute production, have been buzzing with the presence of buyers and sellers, the smile on the faces of jute growers is fading due to low price their yield is fetching. People involved with jute purchase say that the reason for not paying higher is the discoloured fibre they are getting, as the jute plants were not decomposed properly. Jute growers have started appearing with their fibres at different local markets in several upazilas including Saltha, Nagarkanda and Boalmari of the district for the last few days. But they are in a sombre mood due to the low price they are getting, that is often short of their production cost during what is the peak season of jute. The jute growers claimed that they had to count an extra cost for the process of retting that they must put the jute plants through this year, using underground water lifted by shallow machines that run on diesel.

Vermont farmer Brian Kemp is used to seeing the pastures at Mountain Meadows Farm grow slower in the hot, late summer, but this year the grass is at a standstill. That’s “very nerve-wracking” when you’re grazing 600 to 700 cattle, said Kemp, who manages an organic beef farm in Sudbury. He describes the weather lately as inconsistent and impactful, which he attributes to a changing climate. “I don’t think there is any normal anymore,” Kemp said. The impacts of climate change have been felt throughout the Northeastern U.S. with rising sea levels, heavy precipitation and storm surges causing flooding and coastal erosion. But this summer has brought another extreme: a severe drought that is making lawns crispy and has farmers begging for steady rain. The heavy, short rainfall brought by the occasional thunderstorm tends to run off, not soak into the ground. Water supplies are low or dry, and many communities are restricting nonessential outdoor water use. Fire departments are combatting more brush fires and crops are growing poorly. Providence, Rhode Island had less than half an inch of rainfall in the third driest July on record, and Boston had six-tenths of an inch in the fourth driest July on record, according to the National Weather Service office in Norton, Massachusetts. Rhode Island’s governor issued a statewide drought advisory Tuesday with recommendations to reduce water use. The north end of the Hoppin Hill Reservoir in Massachusetts is dry, forcing local water restrictions. Officials in Maine said drought conditions really began there in 2020, with occasional improvements in areas since. In Auburn, Maine, local firefighters helped a dairy farmer fill a water tank for his cows when his well went too low in late July and temperatures hit 90. About 50 dry wells have been reported to the state since 2021, according to the state’s dry well survey. The continuing trend toward drier summers in the Northeast can certainly be attributed to the impact of climate change, since warmer temperatures lead to greater evaporation and drying of soils, climate scientist Michael Mann said. But, he said, the dry weather can be punctuated by extreme rainfall events since a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture — when conditions are conducive to rainfall, there’s more of it in short bursts. Mann said there’s evidence shown by his research at Penn State University that climate change is leading to a “stuck jet stream” pattern. That means huge meanders of the jet stream, or air current, get stuck in place, locking in extreme weather events that can alternately be associated with extreme heat and drought in one location and extreme rainfall in another, a pattern that has played out this summer with the heat and drought in the Northeast and extreme flooding in parts of the Midwest, Mann added. Most of New England is experiencing drought. The U.S. Drought Monitor issued a new map Thursday that shows areas of eastern Massachusetts outside Cape Cod and much of southern and eastern Rhode Island now in extreme, instead of severe, drought. New England has experienced severe summer droughts before, but experts say it is unusual to have droughts in fairly quick succession since 2016. Massachusetts experienced droughts in 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022, which is very likely due to climate change, said Vandana Rao, director of water policy in Massachusetts. “We hope this is maybe one period of peaking of drought and we get back to many more years of normal precipitation,” she said. “But it could just be the beginning of a longer trend.” Rao and other water experts in New England expect the current drought to last for several more months. Read: France's going through its most severe drought ever, PM says “I think we’re probably going to be in this for a while and it’s going to take a lot,” said Ted Diers, assistant director of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services water division. “What we really are hoping for is a wet fall followed by a very snowy winter to really recharge the aquifers and the groundwater.” Rhode Island’s principal forest ranger, Ben Arnold, is worried about the drought extending into the fall. That’s when people do more yardwork, burn brush, use fireplaces and spend time in the woods, increasing the risk of forest fires. The fires this summer have been relatively small, but it takes a lot of time and effort to extinguish them because they are burning into the dry ground, Arnold said. Hay farmer Milan Adams said one of the fields he’s tilling in Exeter, Rhode Island, is powder a foot down. In prior years it rained in the spring. This year, he said, the dryness started in March, and April was so dry he was nervous about his first cut of hay. “The height of the hay was there, but there was no volume to it. From there, we got a little bit of rain in the beginning of May that kind of shot it up,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything since.” Farmers are fighting more than the drought — inflation is driving up the cost of everything, from diesel and equipment parts to fertilizer and pesticides, Adams added. “It’s all through the roof right now,” he said. “This is just throwing salt on a wound.” The yield and quality of hay is down in Vermont too, which means there won’t be as much for cows in the winter, said Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts. The state has roughly 600 dairy farms, a $2 billion per year industry. Like Adams, Tebbetts said inflation is driving up prices, which will hurt the farmers who will have to buy feed. Kemp, the president of the Champlain Valley Farmer Coalition, is thankful to have supplemental feed from last year, but he knows other farmers who don’t have land to put together a reserve and aren’t well-stocked. The coalition is trying to help farmers evolve and learn new practices. They added “climate-smart farming” to their mission statement in the spring.   “Farming is challenging,” Kemp said, “and it’s becoming even more challenging as climate change takes place.”

Aman paddy cultivation is facing a setback because of a drought-like situation in Naogaon district. The croplands have dried up and the vegetable lands are also damaged due to the absence of rainfall and scorching summer heat, farmers said. Aman growers and other farmers remain concerned over the inadequate rainfall that has led to a near-drought-like situation in the district. During a recent visit to the different paddy fields, all the paddy saplings, which were rowed in a month ago, were dying and the soil was dried up. The seedbeds were also damaged. Besides, the vegetable and other crop lands were all scorched. Kuddus Ali, a farmer of Sapahar Sadar headquarters, said farmers are passing an idle time and it is more difficult to step out of the house during the day due to the hot temperature. If this situation continues, then the production of Aman this season may become uncertain, he said. This can be interpreted as the possibility of missing their targeted production, that is set in cooperation with the local Dept of Agriculture Extension office. Read: Flashfloods damage crops worth Tk 127 crore in Kurigram Besides, the cost of irrigation using tube-wells is higher than the normal irrigation process, he said. Sirajul Islam, a farmer of Sadar upazila said, “I brought 2.5 bighas of land under paddy cultivation and within 15 days all paddy saplings were burnt with soil dried up. I will lose everything if there are no showers within a few days now.” Farhana Naznin, upazila agriculture officer, said this season is the time of cultivating Ropa Aman, and it is dependent on rainwater. A letter has been sent to the Barind Development authorities to take steps for irrigation. This year, a total of 1.92 lakh hectares of land have been brought under Ropa Aman cultivation. Nazrul Islam, an officer of Naogaon Badalgachhi Weather Observatory Center, noted with optimism that the rains may finally arrive now in a day or two.

Californians rejoiced this week when big drops of water started falling from the sky for the first time in any measurable way since the spring, an annual soaking that heralds the start of the rainy season following some of the hottest and driest months on record. But as the rain was beginning to fall on Tuesday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom did a curious thing: He issued a statewide drought emergency and gave regulators permission to enact mandatory statewide water restrictions if they choose. Newsom's order might seem jarring, especially as forecasters predict up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain could fall on parts of the Northern California mountains and Central Valley this week. But experts say it makes sense if you think of drought as something caused not by the weather, but by climate change. Read: Wildfires rage as US West grapples with heat wave, drought For decades, California has relied on rain and snow in the winter to fill the state's major rivers and streams in the spring, which then feed a massive system of lakes that store water for drinking, farming and energy production. But that annual runoff from the mountains is getting smaller, mostly because it's getting hotter and drier, not just because it's raining less. In the spring, California's snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains was 60% of its historical average. But the amount of water that made it to the reservoirs was similar to 2015, when the snowpack was just 5% of its historical average. Nearly all of the water state officials had expected to get this year either evaporated into the hotter air or was absorbed into the drier soil. “You don’t get into the type of drought that we're seeing in the American West right now just from ... missing a few storms,” said Justin Mankin, a geography professor at Dartmouth College and co-lead of the Drought Task Force at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “A warm atmosphere evaporates more water from the land surface (and) reduces (the) amount of water available for other uses, like people and hydropower and growing crops.” California's “water year” runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. The 2021 water year, which just ended, was the second driest on record. The one before that was the fifth driest on record. Some of the state's most important reservoirs are at record low levels. Things are so bad in Lake Mendocino that state officials say it could be dry by next summer. Even if California were to have above-average rain and snow this winter, warming temperatures mean it still likely won't be enough to make up for all the water California lost. This past year, California had its warmest ever statewide monthly average temperatures in June, July and October 2020. Jeanine Jones, interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Resources, said people should not think about drought “as being just this occasional thing that happens sometimes, and then we go back to a wetter system.” “We are really transitioning to a drier system so, you know, dry becomes the new normal," she said. “Drought is not a short-term feature. Droughts take time to develop, and they usually linger for quite some time." Water regulators have already ordered some farmers and other big users to stop taking water out of the state's major rivers and streams. Mandatory water restrictions for regular people could be next. Read: Why the world should pay attention to Taiwan's drought In July, Newsom asked people to voluntarily reduce their water use by 15%. In July and August, people cut back 3.5%. On Tuesday, Newsom issued an executive order giving state regulators permission to impose mandatory restrictions, including banning people from washing their cars, using water to clean sidewalks and driveways and filling decorative fountains. State officials have warned water agencies that they might not get any water from the state's reservoirs this year, at least initially. That will be very challenging, said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. But he said he believes Californians will start to conserve more water soon with the help of a statewide conservation campaign, which will include messages on electronic signboards along busy highways. “It's going to happen,” he said. “People are starting to get the message, and they want to do their part.”

These days, farmers in Khulna district are a worried lot. Having grappled with drought and the unrelented heat wave for the past eight months, the farmers fear they may not be able to even recover the production cost of boro paddy this year. Though the farmers are now looking towards the government for some financial help, there has been word from the authorities concerned on the situation so far. "We expected a good harvest, but inclement weather played spoilsport in harvesting this year," said a farmer. Read Countrywide Boro paddy procurement begins In fact, the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) in Khulna has set a target to produce 57,000 metric tonnes of boro paddy on 57,540 hectares of land this year, of which 21,000 hectares have been brought under the dry season rice cultivation in Dumuria upazila alone. Already, many farmers have harvested their paddy and threshing work is on. Boro is the dry season irrigated rice crop planted between December and early February and harvested from April to June. Also read: Govt to buy 11.50 lakh mts Boro rice