Elevated Resilient Agrostructures (ERA): A Climate-Smart Solution for Nutrition and Livelihood Security in Flood-Prone Rural Landscapes

Abstract

Climate-induced flooding significantly undermines food security in South Asian deltaic areas, particularly impacting smallholder family’s dependent on locally cultivated vegetables. This study presents the Elevated Resilient Agrostructure (ERA), a modular vertical farming system engineered for flood-prone areas that utilizes locally sourced materials, including bamboo, biochar, and water hyacinth fiber. ERA towers are designed to help grow vegetables all year, even during seasonal flooding, by using smart farming techniques that focus on growing plants vertically, keeping nutrients in the soil, and ensuring the soil stays stable. Field trials in southern Bangladesh assessed four tower designs over a 90-day cropping period. Medium-sized plastic-lined towers (T1S1) exhibited enhanced performance, producing up to 42.17 t/ha, retaining 93% of nutrients, and attaining a benefit-cost ratio of 2.85. Nutritional evaluations indicated that ERA-cultivated vegetables supplied 25 to 30% of household micronutrient needs per harvest. Households controlled by women reported enhanced access to food and less dependence on external markets.The ERA model corresponds with the principles of climate-smart agriculture by boosting system resilience, enhancing nutritional diversity, and facilitating decentralized food production. Unlike high-input urban vertical farms, the ERA's passive, cost-effective, soil-based architecture renders it appropriate for rural implementation. Despite limitations such as single-season data and the lack of commercial-scale validation, the findings highlight ERA’s promise as a scalable and socially inclusive strategy for attaining climate-resilient nutrition security in flood-affected regions.