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Factors Affecting Farmers’ Adaptation Strategies to Environmental Degradation and Climate Change Effects:a Farm Level Study in Bangladesh

Mohammed Nasir Uddin
Department of Agricultural Extension Education, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh;

Wolfgang Bokelmann
Division of Economic of Horticultural Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt University of Berlin (HUB), Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany;

Jason Scott Entsminger*
Agricultural Business Management, Institute of Applied Agriculture, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Offering a case study of coastal Bangladesh, this study examines the adaptation of agriculturalists to degrading environmental conditions likely to be caused or exacerbated under global climate change. It examined four central components: (1) the rate of self-reported adoption of adaptive mechanisms (coping strategies) as a result of changes in climate; (2) ranking the potential coping strategies based on their perceived importance to agricultural enterprises; (3) identification the socio-economic factors associated with adoption of coping strategies, and (4) ranking potential constraints to adoption of coping strategies based on farmers’ reporting on the degree to which they face these constraints. The research area was comprised of three villages in the coastal region (Sathkhira district), a geographic region which climate change literature has highlighted as prone to accelerated degradation. One-hundred (100) farmers participated in the project’s survey, from which the data was used to calculate weighted indexes for rankings and to perform logistic regression. Results showed that a majority of the farmers self-identified as having engaged in adaptive behavior. Out of 14 adaptation strategies, irrigation ranked first among farm adaptive measures, while crop insurance has ranked as least utilized. The logit model explained that out of eight factors surveyed, age, education, family size, farm size, family income, and involvement in cooperatives were significantly related to self-reported adaptation. Despite different support and technological interventions being available, lack of available water, shortage of cultivable land, and unpredictable weather ranked highest as the respondent group’s constraints to coping with environmental degradation and change effects. These results provide policy makers and development service providers with important insight, which can be used to better target interventions which build promote or facilitate the adoption of coping mechanisms with potential to build resiliency to changing climate and resulting environmental impacts.

Keywords: Farmers’ adaptation; Climate change; Bangladesh

Location:

Start Date: 00-05-2012

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Adoption of technology, Weather/Climate

Objectives:

This paper focuses on identifying socio-economic factors likely to be influential in adaptive behavior, along with the perception of farmers about challenges faced in adopting coping strategies.

Methodology:

Three villages of the coastal region (Sathkhira district) in Bangladesh were considered as the study area. This region is one of the most affected areas compared to other parts of the country due to frequent climatic hazards such as floods, cyclones, tidal forces and increased salinity even drought in dry seasons. Moreover, Cyclone Sidr (2007) and Cyclone Aila (2009) were severely affects the coastal part of this country and damage huge resources especially the farm resources. Consequently, farming of this area is highly affected; moreover, farming specially crop farming decreasing because of its transfer into the fish farming especially shrimp farming. Therefore, both natural and anthropogenic issues affects the farming activities in this area. About 100 farmers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire administered in May 2012. Respondents were selected using a randomized lottery, with lots draw from a listing of farmers within the region compiled by local extension service agents. STATA (a statistical software package) was used to analyze the collected data including descriptive statistics- such as mean, number, standard deviation, range, and percentage- and econometric analysis. Elements of the survey questionnaire collected information on major components: (1) self-reported adoption of pre-determined climate change mitigation strategies by the farmer; (2) rating of the importance of the array of adaptive strategies to the farmer’s practices; (3) the degree to which specific problems that might hinder adoption of coping strategies had been encountered; and (4) demographic information of the household focused on key socio-economic factors. Response options for components (2) and (3) were placed on a continuum (Likert scale) as high, medium, low and not at all. Scores assigned to responses were 3, 2, 1, and 0, respectively. Adaptation is a dependent dummy-variable in the data. The dummy was determined by assigning a value of 1 for farmers who indicated that they had taken adaptive measures in response to negative effects of climate change and a value of 0 for farmers who indicated they did not engage in any adaptive measures at all in response to negative effects of climate change. For instance, if a farmer uses at least one coping strategy to abate the negative consequences of climate change then that farmer is considered to have “adapted” (1). During the enumeration of the survey, respondents were presented with an scripted explanation of practices and behaviors vis-à-vis climate change adaptation strategies, then presented with a simple dichotomous (“yes/no” response) question about whether or not they had adopted any of these behaviors due to changing climate in the region, making results here self-reported. Different strategies are practiced by various farmers, which enhance the farmer’s adaptation to climate change. However, adaptation strategies to climate change effects also depend on the socioeconomic characteristics of the farmers. For instance literate farmers may take different adaptive measures compared to those who are illiterate. Moreover, annual family income, farm size, farming experiences, and contact with extension service agents influence the famers’ use of adaptive measures to adjust to environmental degradation and severe weather events resultant from climate change effects. Regardless of the strategies applied by any farmer, it is predicted that taking adaptive measures reduces the negative effects of climate change on farm production, household income and farmer livelihoods.

Source of Information: Climate 2014, 2, 223-241; ISSN 2225-1154

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

1.

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The majority (88%) of farmer respondents indicated that they had experienced climate change effects over the two decades preceding the implementation of the study. Just a slight proportion fewer- 84 percent- of the farmers who responded in the study indicated that they had adopted coping strategies which help adapt their enterprises to environmental degradation like that expected under climate change, while the rest (16%) did not adopt such practices. Using an Adaptation Strategy Index, it ranked in the adaptation strategies in order by importance finding that irrigation was ranked as the first among farm adaptation strategies, while crop insurance has ranked as least important. The logistic regression model explained that out of eight selected factors, six of them (age, family size, farm size, education, family income and cooperative involvement) were statistically significant factors in relation to adoption of adaptive strategies. Therefore, it concluded that these six factors can be identified as influential characteristics of farmers who adopt coping strategies to climate change effects. Interestingly, three factors showed results of being not statistically significant: credit received, extension training, and market access. Agricultural technologies, credits and inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation should be made available locally to farmers. Policy mechanisms which support related infrastructure development, enable cost-effective access to agricultural inputs, and subsidize initial investments- either directly or through credit market interventions- are all areas on which policy makers should focus in the region, given the results reported here.

Knowledge Management: Journal