Adaptation Through Climate Smart Agriculture: Status and Determinants in Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

The adoption of climate smart agriculture as an adaptation strategy is overwhelmingly stressed in recent times. The Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan 2009 has envisaged adaptation through adoption of climate smart agriculture. Although the literature on agricultural adaptation in general has noticeably increased in recent times, little is known about the adoption of climate smart agriculture as a strategy of adaptation against climate change and extreme events. This study is intended to achieve two objectives. First, to assess the status of the adoption of climate smart agriculture as an adaptation strategy and second to examine the factors that influence the adoption of climate smart agriculture in environmentally stressed areas of coastal Bangladesh. The empirical part of this study was conducted in Dacope Upazila (sub-district) of south-west coastal Bangladesh. Two hundred and thirty five randomly selected households were interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire during March–June in 2011. From a literature review, 25 indicators which capture three dimensions of climate smart agriculture, such as sustainability of production, resilience to change and the potential for mitigation of emissions were used in the questionnaire. Responses against each of these were rated in a 5-point Likert scale. Information about various socio-demographic, economic, ecological, and adaptive behavioural characteristics of households and their farms were collected as well. By employing the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) technique, weak adopters and strong adopters of the three dimensions of climate smart agriculture are identified. Finally, by employing the Multivariate Probit model, the influence of various factors on the adoption of climate smart agriculture are assessed. The adoption of sustainable production is mostly related to the frequent exposure to rainfall (irrigation facility), sharecropping, and the age of the household head. The adoption of adaptive measures for resilient agriculture are related to frequent exposures to dry spells, the size of farm landholding and frequent exposures to saline water. On the other hand the adoption of measures for the reduction of emissions are related to land degradation by salt, membership of a social group, and the education of the head of household. Other factors have very limited influence in this regard. Finally this study came up with some policy suggestions, the implementation of which would help the coastal inhabitants to better adopt climate smart agriculture as an adaptation strategy to ensure livelihood and food security against climate change and extreme events.