Proper nourishment is fundamental for satisfactory crop growth and production. However, for efficient crop production, it is important to understand the soil environment, to recognize the limitations of that environment, and to ameliorate them where possible without damaging the soil quality. Soil testing and fertilizer recommendation facilities (STFRF) can help farmers to achieve environmental and economic sustainability by assisting them in recognizing their soil condition, reducing agrochemicals usage, using an appropriate amount of fertilizer, minimizing input costs, and achieving higher yield. These facilities are not new in the context of Bangladesh, yet the adoption rate among farmers is low and its determinants have rarely been empirically tested based on microlevel data. Therefore, this study examined those factors underlying the adoption of soil testing and fertilizer recommendation facilities using field surveyed data of 176 individual farmers. Our evidence shows that young farmers with less farming experience are more likely to adopt these facilities. Additionally, being small-scale farmers, having higher education, having more farming income, and having more knowledge about these facilities and the fees of these facilities were found to have a significant effect on the adoption. On the other hand, gender, land ownership, and secondary income were found to be insignificant with regard to the adoption of soil testing and fertilizer recommendation facilities. Our results also revealed that most adopter farmers not only focused on profitability, but were additionally concerned with environmental well-being.

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IntroductionBangladesh's quest to achieve sustainable development goals has highlighted the need to enhance resilience against the challenges that interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus systems faces to support human well-being. The government has decided to promote the adoption of competent and cutting-edge technologies that can significantly contribute to balancing energy and water resource utilization in achieving a more sustainable and climate-smart food production system. Hence, scaled-up adoption of solar-powered irrigation systems and recommended fertilizer dose (SIRFD) applications were proposed. This study, to provide practical policy implications, attempts to identify the determinants and impact of SIRFD adoption in water-scarce areas of Bangladesh.MethodsDeterminants of adoption were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression, and the adoption impact was analyzed using treatment effect models.ResultsThe results revealed that land typology, soil fertility perception, soil water retention, knowledge, environmental awareness, secondary income, close acquaintance adoption, and cash availability significantly influenced adoption decisions. The treatment effect model result indicated that farmers who adopted both technologies could reduce production costs by 1.36% and obtain an 8.92% higher ROI than non-adopters.ConclusionThe study findings suggest that policy interventions on scaling up SIRFD adoption require focusing on knowledge development village-based demonstration activities, group farming models backed by micro-finance, and avoiding launching conflicting schemes.

Introduction: Fossil fuel and electricity-based irrigation practices contribute to greenhouse gases and add substantial costs to water access. Solar-powered irrigation is spreading globally, notably in developing countries, as a solution to the rising energy and climate concerns related to agriculture. This policy perspective devoted to examining the impact of the solar irrigation facilities (SIF) adoption on irrigation cost and return on investment (ROI) based on seven years of panel data seeks to contribute to the efforts to propel solar irrigation toward delivering on the myriad of promises.Methods: Panel logistic regression was employed to analyze adoption determinants, while adoption impact was evaluated through the propensity score matching with the difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method. In addition, the time and panel fixed effect DID and doubly robust DID model was also used for robustness check.Results: The result reveals that SIF adoption significantly increased ROI by 20% to 30% and reduced irrigation costs by 21% to 30%.Conclusion: The findings call for further research and analysis on evidence-based best practices for solar irrigation solutions at the farm level so that the dissemination of this revolutionary technology, apart from contributing to the advancement of the energy sector, also plays a vital role in driving us towards establishing a more equitable and sustainable world.

Due to the combined effect of biotic and abiotic constraints, rising population pressure, and inelastic demand in the crop and horticulture sector, Bangladesh has had to adopt heavily subsidized and intensified fertilizer policies to enhance crop productivity, achieve and sustain self-sufficiency in food production, and food security provision. Although the initiative has played a vital role in boosting production, it has also invigorated the unbalanced amount of fertilizer application practices raising questions about maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services while feeding the nation’s population. Further research in this area must thus be applied to monitor and improve this sector. This study attempts to understand the issue by investigating the factors influencing Boro rice farmers’ adoption decisions of recommended fertilizer doses. The study employs an ordered probit model with a sample selection approach. The investigation is based on collected data from 405 randomly selected farmers using a face-to-face interview method. The farmers were classified into low, middle, high and non-adopter groups. The study revealed that farmers’ age, land typology, soil water retention, knowledge, and availability of cow dung significantly influenced farmers’ decision to apply fertilizers. However, farmers’ carry an aversion to following recommendations for fertilizer application due to their ambiguity about the whole system, their current fertilizer application-seeking behavior, and the lack of understanding of the environmental benefits of adoption. These issues urge policy interventions to initiate village-based demonstration programs that synthesize better synergies between recommended dose adoption, yield amelioration, sustainable soil care, and economics.