The status of implemented climate smart agriculture practices preferred by farmers of haor area as a climate resilient approach

Abstract

Bangladesh's Haor regions are famous for their natural resources and are unable to escape climate vulnerability. Triggered by climate vulnerabilities farmers are heading towards climate-resilient approaches. Hence, research was done in the haor area of Sunamganj district to analyze the status of adopted Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) techniques in Chhatak, Sunamganj, and Jagannathpur which are prone to severe flooding and climate conditions. Around 450 farmers were randomly selected and CSA adopters were contacted. A structured questionnaire was prepared with open-ended and closed-ended questions. The final questionnaire contained demographic questions and a list of adopted cropland and homestead CSA practices, and the survey proceeded with 115 finalized CSA adopters. MS Excel and SPSS were used to analyze the data. The data were expressed using frequency, percent, mean, and standard deviation. A t-test, analysis of variance, multiple linear regression, Pearson correlation, boxplot, and normal P–P plots were employed to test data normality. The analysis revealed that 30 CSA practices were identified to be practiced in cropland where major preferences were found for appropriate seed storage (100%), USG application (100%), IPM (98%), and good quality seed (95%) in cropland, whereas agroforestry (71%), organic fertilizer application (63%), perching (63%) and IPM (59%) were major CSA practices among the 18 identified practices in homesteads. The adoption level of CSA practices was found in the score category of 11–23 for cropland (90%) and up to 10 for homestead (68%). The results showed that the adoption status of CSA practices was inefficient for quick flood occurrence. CSA practices are not applied enough in haor areas' homesteads due to lack of knowledge, information access, and technical and financial resources. Thus, CSA should be implemented which necessitates working on barriers restricting CSA adoption through strengthening the infrastructure of technologies, supportive policies, and institutional framework.