- English
The frequent climatic extreme events in Bangladesh’s coastal region significantly affected the local agricultural system. To
meet the growing food demand, coastal regions must adopt climate-smart agricultural practices to sustain food production.
This study examines the farmers’ behavioral determinants for adopting climate-smart agricultural practices based on floating
farming. Using a structured questionnaire, we surveyed 341 farm households in climate change-affected wetland areas of
southern coastal Bangladesh. We used an Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model by analyzing data to estimate the
effect of adopting floating farming as an adaptation strategy on farm households’ profitability. Our findings suggest that 79%
of sampled farm households used floating farming to adapt to extreme climatic events like waterlogging, hazard effects, and
erratic rainfall. Results exhibit that age, education, religion, cultivation season, hazard effects, training, previous knowledge
of floating farming, and technical support were the determinants of adopting floating farming. Adopting farm households had
a 60% higher farm profit than non-adopters, and cooperative membership, technical, credit, and training positively affected
farm profits. Estimates from the ESR model show that the adoption of floating farming resulted in higher profitability when
compared with the counterfactual situation. Analysis reveals that adopters of floating farming experienced a significant gain
of US$ 22.66/decimal as farm profit compared to the control mean (US$ 37.69/decimal). In contrast, non-adopters would have
gained US$ 1.28/decimal if they had adopted floating farming, indicating the missed opportunity for enhanced profitability.
These findings highlight the potential of floating farming as an effective climate-smart adaptation strategy in wetland areas,
emphasizing the need for targeted policies and support mechanisms to promote its wider adoption and enhance farmers'
resilience to climate change impacts.
- English
