No abstract

Bangladesh, with an area of 147 thousand km 2 and population of 149.78 million, is prone to natural hazards (PHC, 2011). The objectives of the study were to determine the climatic parameter specially temperature and rainfall pattern, assess hazard, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. Assessment was made during April to June 2013 in char areas of Kazipur upazila under Sirajgonj district. Primary data were collected through Focus Group Discussions and direct observation of the researcher. Secondary data were collected from various publications of government and non-government agencies. Workshops were also conducted at union and upazila level to justify, validate and improve the findings from village levels discussion. Major vulnerabilities faced by the char (island) people were drown of children and old people, lack of safe drinking water, close institutions, crackdown of embankments and roads, river erosion, stagnant water, infertility of cultivable lands, deposits and on crop field, submerse of crops, float away of fishes from ponds, PPR disease of goats, sell cattle at lower price, migration, increase abduction and robbery, increase lightning and cold wave. The major adaptation practiced by the char people was raise homesteads, articulate extra pipes with the tube wells, repair embankments and roads, plant tree seedlings, cultivate advanced crops, vegetables in floating beds, drought tolerant crops, cold wave tolerant and early maturity crop, vaccinate the cattle, drill deep tube wells and reserve fodder (CVCA, 2012).

Southwestern coastal Bangladesh is characterized by low-lying topography, high productive mangrove ecosystem and unique biodiversity. At the same time, the region is highly prone to cyclones, coasting flooding, and salinity, which causes huge losses to agriculture production and rural livelihoods. Marginal and small farmers are affected more. The objective of this paper is to examine the extent of climatic variations and to analyze farming communities' vulnerabilities and adaptations to climate change in the saline prone southwestern coastal Bangladesh. We used both primary and secondary data for this study. We collected primary data from Atulia and Padmapukur unions of Shyamnagar upazila under Satkhira district of Bangladesh in April 2013. We collected secondary data from published statistics. We did not find significant changes in temperature and rainfall over time but salinity level has increased over time. Major vulnerability faced by farming communities due to climate change were saline water intrusion, scarcity of safe drinking and irrigation water, and problems on crop production, livestock rearing, fresh water fish culture, and sanitary latrines. Major adaptations practiced by farmers were culturing saline water shrimp in farms, harvesting rain water, drinking pond's water, catching fish from the sea and river, and desalinization of river water by constructing embankments. Agricultural adaptation practices such as saline tolerant rice varieties cultivation, crabs fattening, sowing and planting date shifting, mulching, soil flashing, fertilizers management, seeds sowing using dibbling method, raise or slopping bed method crop cultivation in embankments, pit method crop cultivation, changing cropping patterns, zero tillage, and sorjan method crop cultivation can helps minimize the impacts of climate change, particularly to vulnerable smallholder farmers. Policies and programs are needed to develop and disseminate these adaptation practices complemented by farmers' training on these practices.

Sixteen castrated male Black Bengal goats (aged between 8 and 10 months and average live weight 9.16 kg) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial design to study the effect of protein levels and sources on growth and nutrient digestibility under intensive condition for 56 days. The sources of protein were mustard oil cake (MOC) and soybean meal (SBM). Level of protein in each sources were 22 (HP-high protein) and 16 (LP-low protein) percentage. The dietary treatments were (T 1 ) MOC-HP, (T 2 ) MOC-LP, (T 3 ) SBM-HP and (T 4 ) SBM-LP. Concentrate diets as well as dal grass was fed throughout the experimental period and last week considered for digestibility trial. Average daily live weight gain of goats was 42, 41, 43, and 52 g for the diets T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 respectively. The result showed no significant (P>0.05) variation between protein sources and their levels on growth performance. Intake of DM was 425, 389, 407 and 437 g/d which were 4.2, 3.8, 4.0 and 4.1 percent of their body weight for the diets T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 respectively. Intake of CP was 59, 46, 56 and 50 g/d respectively. The sources of protein did not influence the intake of CP (P>0.05), but their levels had (P<0.05) effect on it. Digestibility of DM was 62, 58, 69 and 68 percent respectively. OM digestibility (g/100g) was 67, 64, 71 and 73 for the diets T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 respectively. Digestibility (g/100g) of CP was 62, 60, 70 and 69 for the diets T 1 , T 2 , T 3 and T 4 respectively. Thus the result showed that the digestibility of DM, CP and OM was significantly higher for SBM than MOC but their levels varied insignificantly. Therefore low protein supplementation (16%) in a concentrate mixture containing mustard oil cake and/or soybean meal could be suggested for optimizing growth performance of Black Bengal Goat under intensive management system.