Alleviating climate change impacts in rural Bangladesh: a PROMETHEE outranking-based approach for prioritizing agricultural interventions

Abstract

This paper presents a PROMETHEE multicriteria outranking-based approach for prioritizing agricultural interventions to alleviate climate change on a farm basis. The drought-prone areas of Rajshahi and flood-saline-prone areas of Barisal in rural Bangladesh were chosen as case studies. A number of existent agricultural interventions have been comparatively evaluated upon several diversified criteria. The process of evaluation was held through an online survey to experts with knowledge in rice farming and climate change effects in Bangladesh. The findings indicate that water storage systems were prioritized first in northern drought area, whereas the introduction of improved rice varieties in flood-saline south was of the highest importance. Furthermore, the combined implementation of water storage, improved rice varieties, and seminars on agricultural management to farmers was signified as an integrated response to climate change for both regions. The findings were already presented to key stakeholders where a strong support for the combined implementation of the suggested interventions in pilot sites was given.