Analysis on the factors affecting farmers’ performance in disaster risk management at community level: focusing on a Haor locality in Bangladesh

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors affecting famers’ performance in disaster risk management (DRM) at community level focusing on a haor area of Bangladesh. We introduced structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the results of authors’ designated questionnaire survey (face-to-face interview) targeting the farmers of Itna union in Kishoreganj district of Bangladesh, to verify our hypothesis “Farmers’ attributes, their level of social capital, and attitudes toward technology and training have impacts on their performance in disaster risk management at community level (H1)”. The results clarified that there are multi causal relationships among the factors affecting farmers’ performance in DRM, in which, the factors of gender, poverty, social capital and farmers’ attitudes toward technology and training are important in the haor area of Bangladesh. Therefore, we draw policy implication from the analytical results that it is necessary to recognize that the causes of poverty are strongly route-dependent in rural areas including the existence of gender discrimination and a low trust to government officials. Furthermore, we suggest to have DRM policies to consider poverty issue from a different lens and to pay attention to the investment in innovation and entrepreneurship.