Published: 12:07 AM, 30 March 2026
Precision Agriculture: Bangladesh’s Climate-Resilient Lifeline
Arghya Protik Chowdhury
Precision agriculture (PA) stands out as one of the most effective dual-purpose strategies for both adapting to and mitigating climate change in Bangladesh. In a country ranked among the most climate-vulnerable on Earth, where rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, increasing salinity, frequent floods, and cyclones already jeopardize food security for over 170 million people, PA provides targeted, data-driven solutions that interrupt the harmful feedback loop between farming practices and worsening climate impacts.
In conventional farming, water, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides are sprayed on the whole fields, which results in wastages, excessive applications, and an increase in greenhouse gases (GHG). PA, in turn, applies GPS-guided equipment, soil moisture sensors, drones with multispectral cameras, satellite-based vegetation indices (NDVI), IoT networks, and AI-based analytics in order to manage field variability in real time. The use of inputs is only made where and when they are necessary. These techniques save 20-40 percent of input cost in the globe and cause much reduced chemical runoff and emissions. In the case of Bangladesh, climate change is not only detrimental to agriculture, but also significantly caused by it, which makes its relevance even more significant. Rice is the mainstay of the agricultural system, both in terms of employment (approximately 45 percent of the labor force) or GDP (between 12 and 13 percent). As a result of a record Boro crop of 31.7 million tones and favorable weather in other major seasons, aggregate paddy production was again in 2025 about 62 million tones. But long-term tendencies are disturbing.
The rise in average temperatures by 0.24 deg C every ten years since 1981 has been observed and is expected to continue to rise by 1.5-2 deg C by 2050. In the absence of effective adaptation strategies, rice production will have reduced by 15 to 20 percent by mid-century. Salinity along the coasts has been rising by 27 percent since 1970s, groundwater levels are dropping in the northern districts and the sea-level rise of 3.8 to 5.8 mm per year threatens to reduce national rice production by a further 6 to 9 percent in the next century. A high-warming scenario (approximately 4deg C) would reduce rice production by as much as 28 percent and wheat by 68 percent.
The national emissions are also caused by agriculture. Chronic flooding in rice paddies generates substantial quantities of methane (CH4) which contributes to 18-22 percent of all agricultural GHG emissions and 62% of all sectoral methane. Diesel or electrically powered irrigation pump emissions contribute to CO2 and too much use of nitrogen fertilizers emits nitrous oxide (N2O). The high in agricultural GHG emissions was 34.3 million tones CO2-equivalent in 2021, of which rice cultivation was the biggest single source. It is a vicious circle where the greater the dependence on water and fertilizers in extreme weather, the greater the emissions and consequently the higher the floods, droughts, and heatwaves which cause further damage to crops.
Precision agriculture directly aims at this cycle and can be quantitatively effective. IoT systems with soil moisture sensors make it possible to implement Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD), which is a broadly tested climate-smart method. Field experiments indicate that under local conditions (and up to 51.6 percent in larger experiments) AWD decreases methane emissions by 37 percent, decreases total global warming potential by almost 47 percent and conserves 25 to 40 percent of irrigation water. Together with real-time monitoring, farmers avoid unnecessary flooding, reducing diesel consumption and related CO2 and do not reduce yield. Variable-rate technology (VRT) which is GPS-guided and equipment like the Prided Urea Applicator are used to enhance nitrogen placement, increasing nitrogen-use efficiency up to 30 percent, N2O emissions by up to 10 to 20 percent and yields by approximately 10 percent. Early evidence of drought and heat stress or salinity damage can be detected by drones and satellite imagery and spot treatments can be used to protect endangered coastal regions, of which 40 percent of farmland has already been damaged. These interventions produce strong synergies when combined. Nationwide adoption could reduce irrigation water demand by 30 to 40 percent and fertilizer use by 20 to 30 percent, directly lowering methane and N2O while enhancing drought and flood resilience. When integrated with short-duration, stress-tolerant rice varieties (such as BRRI dhan67 or salinity-resistant lines), PA supports location-specific crop choices: heat-tolerant varieties in the Barend Tract, submergence-tolerant ones in haor basins, and salt-tolerant cultivars in the south. Local datasets like SPAS-Dataset-BD enable modelling that shows such tailored strategies could offset 10 to 20 percent of projected climate-related yield losses and deliver emission reductions consistent with Bangladesh’s Nationally Determined Contributions.
The adoption is increasing, but there are uneven developments. Start-ups such as Ankur, ifarmer and Cultivate8 are implementing low cost IoT sensors and AI-advised guidelines and pilot studies are claiming up to 35 percent declines in field variability. Government initiatives include smart irrigation project pilot programs led by BADC, the Khamari app which is a central management information system, and comprehensive mobile extension services. Climate-smart agriculture is a priority in the National Adaptation Plan (2023-2050) and Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, but large-scale implementation of PA does not receive specific funding and policy attention. A number of structural barriers still exist. The vast majority of the farms (80 percent) are less than one hectare, which means the initial investments in sensors, drones, and software are unattainable by the smallholders in the most climatically vulnerable areas. Lack of internet accessibility, patchy coverage, inadequate digital literacy and poor access to electricity deter standard adoption. Women, who constitute a huge percentage of agricultural labour, often experience limited access to credit, training, and technology, furthering gender-based climate vulnerability. PA might further extend existing inequalities without intentional effort, which mainly favors farmers who have stronger resources or have a better connection.
To solve these problems, it is necessary to take evidence-based coordinated steps. Demonstration farms are suggested to be spread through agro-ecological zones in order to offer tangible data on return on investment data in actual climate stress. Lower barriers to entry can be achieved through equipment leasing schemes, community drone services, and special subsidies (based on existing mechanisation schemes). Rural broadband investments and easy to use Bangali-language applications are mandatory. BRRI, university, startup, and Ministry of Agriculture should adopt the public-private partnerships, focusing on the affordable, modular solutions of PA on small plots. Financial incentives on agricultural credit and performance-based incentives on carbon (such as payments per tonne of CO2-equivalent reduced) may be made to create financial motives in PA adoption. Open and transparent satellite and climate data would enhance monitoring, reporting and verification systems, assist capturing international assistance through ADB, FAO, UNDP and climate finance mechanisms.
The benefits that can be gained are enormous and interdependent. Scaled PA adoption has the potential to protect food production to a population projected to reach 200 million in 2050, decrease reliance on imported fertilizers and fuel, decrease agricultural GHG emissions by 20-40 percent priority areas and enhance resilience to floods, droughts, salinity and heat. It would create new jobs in the drone service, data analysis, agritech support, and green supply chains and lower physical labor loads, especially on women. Most importantly, it transforms agriculture as a victim and contributor to the climate change into the key component of the solution-providing it with greater productivity, reduced emissions, and a better adaptive ability in a single scheme.
Bangladesh has also exhibited time and again with resilience by being innovative in its endeavors and by working together. The next logical and scientifically-based development is precision agriculture that is tied to real-time information and location-specific management. With each field being treated based on its own soil, weather, and crop factors, the country will be able to reduce the emissions simultaneously and adjust to the inevitability of climate changes and ensure the stable low-carbon food future. The sources are strong: in the shifting climate in Bangladesh, accuracy is the key to survival and development.
Arghya Protik Chowdhury is a
student in Department of
Environmental Science, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP),
Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka.
