Bangladesh farmers swap rice for vegetables as water dries up

For decades, Shafiqul Islam Babu grew rice on his land in northwest Bangladesh -- until climate change made rainfall more erratic and overused groundwater began drying up in the mid-2000s. As his rice harvest declined, so did his earnings. In response, the 45-year-old farmer decided to grow cabbage on his land -- a high-value crop that uses less water than rice, has plenty of buyers, and provides him with a steady income. "I didn't know what to do instead of paddy farming, which was my ancestor's profession, (and) I had to maintain my family with my savings," he said in an interview while cleaning weeds and dead leaves from his 20-hectare (49-acre) cabbage farm. "Then, vegetable farming showed me a ray of hope." Babu said he sold his entire cabbage crop ahead of harvest this year, with demand for the vegetable high in Dhaka, the capital. He managed to make about Tk2.15 lakh ($2,000), up from the Tk80,000 he used to receive for his rice harvest. Accelerating climate change impacts ...