FARMERS LIVELIHOOD DUE TO SALINITY INTRUSION IN MORELGANJ UPAZILA OF BANGLADESH

This study was conducted in three villages of Morelgonj under Bagarhat district during December, 2013 to January, 2014, to know the salinity status, select the salinity tolerant crops and measure the farmer’s livelihood adaptation pattern in the selected villages of the study area. Considering 60 householders as respondents (sampling size was 20% of the total population) multistage stratified random sampling procedure was under majority of the respondents (92%) were male and majority were primary school level. Considerable member of the respondents were small farmers (32%) and marginal farmer (28%). Negative impact was found of salinity on 'agricultural crops' and 'plantation crops'. Salinity increased on the May-June and March-April in the study area. Some crops damaged there- by reduced cropping intensity due to salinity for the said months and this situation was unchanged for the past 20 to 30 years. Farmers were not aware about the saline tolerant crops or crop varieties and also endangered crops in the study area.