Household’s Agricultural Vulnerability to Climate Induced Disasters: A Case on South-West Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

Climate change-related catastrophic events have a considerable influence on south-western coastal agriculture in Bangladesh. The objectives of this study are to measure the agricultural vulnerability of south-western coastal households in Bangladesh due to climate-induced disasters and to find the sub-indicators of adaptive capacity (AC) that influence the agricultural vulnerability. An agricultural vulnerability index (AVI) was developed by using the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) dimensions to measure the vulnerability. The sub-indicators of AC that affect agricultural vulnerability to climate-induced disasters were identified using an ordered logit model. This study employed a survey of 346 households from two villages (181 households from Sutarkhali and 165 households from Nalian) of the Sutarkhali Union of Dacope Upazila within a south-west coastal district (Khulna) of the country. The main respondents were the household heads. The findings demonstrated that Sutarkhali had a mean score of 0.703 (high) for exposure, 0.762 (high) for sensitivity, 0.397 (low) for AC, and 0.689 for AVI (high). Similarly, Nalian scored 0.658 (high) for exposure, 0.681 (high) for sensitivity, 0.410 (low) for AC, and 0.643 (high) for AVI. Non-farm employment, livestock ownership, irrigation pump access, improved crop diversification/saline tolerant high-yielding variety (HYV) crops access, and farm credit access were found to be statistically significant sub-indicators of AC that affect the agricultural vulnerability of both study sites. Finally, it is recommended that the relevant authorities and policy makers should implement the necessary agricultural adaptation initiatives in south-west coastal Bangladesh.