Flooding frequency is not always easy to assess due to changes in land use, stream morphology, climate, Flooding and working the soil in wet conditions can also damage soil properties.  Rutting or compaction can increase the duration of soil wetness and inoperability.  If you have access to soil scientist, hydrologist, and perhaps other technical specialists, they may help develop mitigation plans and help identify if there are contributing factors for flood severity and increase in frequency.  It is difficult to prescribe without specifics to sites, watersheds, etc.  

Thanks Dr Hansen. The area, I am talking about, is typically remain flooded for about 6 months of the year. Generally flooding starts in late May and onwards depemding on onset of monsoon. Besides, heavy rainfall in Cheraponj, Assam also induces flood in north-east part of the country. This year it has damaged the rice crop in April, which has not found in the recent 4/5 decades.

By Sustainable and Conservation Techniques it (Climate Change) could be adapted NOT mitigated....

Holland has done much with managing their coastal and flooded lands.  Perhaps their measures could be retrofitted to your circumstance.  Setting up procedures to store a portion of crop each year should help defray infrequent flooding losses.  i am attaching a publication that classifies wetlands and deepwater habitats.  IF flooding that damages crops is only a 2-3% chance in any given year, then careful planning may be enough to 

sorry ===>   compensate.  The costs to modify these systems may include ecological and environmental considerations,  Interdisiplinary planning with resource professions may hellp produce a balanced approach.   

My dog is affecting my typing.   This may help classify and describe how wet your conditions are.  Also mapping of hydric soil types can be informative.

Dr Hansen,

Thanks lot for the excellent document.

Interesting discussion Dr Biswas. Cherrapunjee is a part of Meghalaya  state of India , not Assam . Once upon a time , this area used to be the wettest area of the world , now it has shifted to Mawsyrnum area of Meghalaya. Best course to avoid the extreme events , is to maintain  a definite ratio of agriculture land to  forest land  area ..

this may be attained by using a system that is compatible with the existing Ecosystem, without unnecessarily disturbing it.Thus, avoiding excessive irrigation, zero or no-tillage, avoiding excessive fertilizer application and using the right type and appropriate doses are some of the very good measures.

Dr Ibrahim,

Flash flood is not related with irrigation, fertilizer, tillage

Dr Anoop,

Thanks a lot for your response. Forestry is a good option, but where from we will get rice, the main food of Bangalee. Haor areas are the vital rice producton areas in Bangladesh.

Thanks Dr Biswas. I  am saying about the ratio of forest/pasture land to agriculture land ratio, which is more important since these forest and pasture  land act as big carbon sink. in that context , i am referring this issue. We already have rice intensification programme in practice as a  big success..Dr Biswas. 

Well said Dr Anoop. You are very much true about rice intensification. But then popolation density is increasing and so does food demand. The area is low lying- early planting of rice having cold tolerance at reproductive stage could be one of the options for avoiding flash flood damage. Concerted efforts betwen India and Bangladesh can play a vital role in adaptation.

Thats true Dr Biswas , but how will this strategy  help in moderating the occurrence of extreme events . It is a kind of strategy  , that will only help to avoid the extreme event like low temperature, for example , grain filling stage..? To avoid frequent  recurrence of extreme events affecting  agriculture would be , perhaps more meaningful... 

Thanks Dr Anoop. I have seen that extreme events, for example flash flood in Bangladesh, generally occur in later part of April and onward. If we can transplant a rice variety in early November that mature in late March or by first week of April, such flood might not damage the crop. The problem is cold injury at reproductive stage. we have no rice variety that can tolerate cold spell in reproductive stage. We can't really avoid all extreme events affecting agriculture. Agriculture is a gambling in many parts of the world,

Yes , i agree with you Dr Biswas. Such flash floods are a  very common feature  of Bangladesh Agriculture. Somewhere geography is hugely responsible. Such  varietal interventions ( maturing before the initiation of flash floods) could be made possible , but how to minimise the occurrence of such flash floods ...?? 

The issue of climate change and its impacts is very complicated because you need to incorporate all sectors in the solutions, in addition the political institutions should be incorporated also in the decision. However, in agriculture soil C sequestration should be considered especially in the degraded areas, because of its high potentially to sequester more C than good area, or in the areas that are subjected to the negative impacts of climate change. So in such case land uses should be changed  or restored to be able to absorb the chocks. As well, agricultural practices that will lead to more gas emissions such as that in rice cropping systems should be altered to mitigate the gases.

Dr Anoop and Dr Heba,

Thanks a lot for the valuable comments and information. We have analyzed historical climate data for one region of bangladesh and found that rainy days are drcreasing but intensity is increasing. This means that total rainfall is occurring in a less number of days. So, flash flood is the result in flat land, like Bangladesh. Since upstream flow of water is the vital issue, joint efforts from India and Bangladesh can minimize flash flood damage through basin management.

Good point Dr Biswas , i agree with you . Then intervention of agriculture alone will not be able to ward off such precarious situation . 

Many methods to protect climatic conditions as follows. Sapling the plants,organic farming, water shed management, protecting the soil from pollution are the methods to preserve the climatic conditions.