Assessing Farmers’ Typologies of Perception for Adopting Sustainable Adaptation Strategies in Bangladesh

Abstract

The implementation of sustainable adaptation strategies (SASs) is crucial to mitigate climate change impact as well as reduce the loss of natural disasters and increase agricultural crop production. However, current policies and programs based on agricultural incentives are mostly inadequate to increase SASs practices at the farm level. Hence, a deeper understanding of farmers’ ‘perceived typologies to the environmental issue and climate change’ is necessary for implementing SASs to enhance farmers’ ability to adapt at the farm level. This research intends to demarcate farmers in various categories, according to their perceptions on environmental and climate change issues in the northern part of Bangladesh. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were employed to analyze the survey data collected from 501 households in the study area. Farmers were clustered into three types, ‘Ecocentric’, ‘Worried’, and ‘Anthropocentric’, based on their perceived knowledge regarding environmental issues and climate change, which guides the adoption of SASs. The ‘Worried’ cluster showed a high sense of perceived risk of climate change and a significant positive association with the adoption of SASs. By contrast, ‘Ecocentric’ and ‘Anthropocentric’ groups showed a low sense of awareness of climate change and a significant negative association with the adoption of SASs. The findings can assist policymakers in promoting the adoption of SASs based on the farmers’ cluster and thus enhance their resilience.

The Adaptation Behaviour of Marine Fishermen towards Climate Change and Food Security: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Health Belief Model

“…However, a quantitative investigation of the critical components influencing adaptive behaviour in response to climatically associated threats is still required to gain a holistic and thorough understanding of the various determinants of adaptation behaviour [29], particularly in the context of a developing economy, such as that of Bangladesh, which lacks sufficient research data in this area. A review of the available empirical literature on adaptation towards climate change in Bangladesh revealed that most studies conducted to date [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] have concentrated on agriculture, agricultural farmers and coastal shrimp farmers. Moreover, the bulk of empirical research [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] has examined the perception, barriers and social components of the adaptation of marine fishermen and coastal communities in Bangladesh.…”

Assessing Riverbank Erosion and Livelihood Resilience Using Traditional Approaches in Northern Bangladesh

“…Food insecurity also influences health status such that 28.8% of households perceived it has low impacts, while 48.3% consider it moderate and 22.9% severe. Riverbank erosion heavily damages physical structures as well as livelihood resources [52,53]. In our study, physical and agricultural assets are enormously affected by erosion, which results in increasing livelihood vulnerability.…”

Multidimensional Typology of Mexican Farmers in the Context of Climate Change

“…The construction of typologies allows for the identification of producers with common socioeconomic attributes, and is an efficient tool for realistically analyzing farmers' limitations and opportunities [16,17]. Differentiated solutions to cope with climate change and some socially problematic issues [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] can be designed. It thus becomes relevant to identify the different groups of producers that exist in a country or region to determine the heterogeneity of the agricltural systems and to develop better and more effective climate adaptation and mitigation outreach strategies.…”