Growing fruit and vegetables in home gardens has always been considered environmentally friendly, but it is now thought it could also become a weapon in the fight against climate change.

That is exactly what residents of one area of Bangladesh experienced when monsoon rains destroyed their paddy, the main crop for their food and income.

In April 2017, early heavy rain in Bangladesh's Sylhet division destroyed all the paddy in their fields, although that year the rain was not due to start for another two months.

Most of the farmers' crops were destroyed by the rain. That meant they had no income for the rest of the year and not enough food for their families.

Scientists have long warned that climate change is affecting both how people grow crops and the nutritional value of food.

Sabine Gabriych, professor in the climate and health department of Charite University Medicine in Berlin and a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said: "These people really have no role in climate change, yet they are its victims."

Speaking to the BBC while attending a conference on health and climate organised by the Nobel Foundation, she said: "They are victims of climate change in a different way, because they are losing their means of livelihood and their source of food and nutrition. Their children suffer most, because they are growing fast and so need more nutrition."

As many as one-third of women were found to be underweight, and 40 per cent of children seriously malnourished.

"Many people are really just barely surviving in this, and suffer from many kinds of illness," said Professor Gabriych. "They have no insurance either."

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.