Determinants of households’ livelihood diversification strategies to adapt with natural disasters: Evidence from ecologically vulnerable haor region of Bangladesh

Abstract

The haor region of Bangladesh is exposed to a variety of natural disasters such as flash floods, seasonal floods, droughts, riverbank erosions, embankment breaches due to climate change, which impacts the haor people's lives and livelihoods. The study aims to assess the various livelihood strategies adopted by the haor households, as well as the factors that influence their decision to pursue more environmentally friendly and sustainable livelihood strategies. The primary data from the 300 haor households in Kishoregonj, Netrokona and Sunamgonj districts were collected with a multi-stage stratified random sample technique taking 100 of each district. We provide inimitable insight into the analysis framework for understanding sustainable rural livelihood, as well as empirical evidence of how livelihood resources, livelihood strategies, and livelihood outcomes are strongly interrelated. The study classified households’ economic activities into five distinct categories together with crop farming to cope with natural disasters. Among the livelihood options, crop plus livestock rearing is the most productive livelihood strategy for haor households. The findings revealed that the higher returning livelihood diversification strategies are significantly influenced by the household’s head age and education, dependency ratio, land holdings, household assets value, access to credit, annual income, membership of any organization, home to road, market, and haor distances, communication during the dry season, duration of waterlogged, and agro-ecology. In order to change the local context and enable poor households to establish more profitable livelihood strategies, policies should aim to promote the significant determinants of livelihood strategies, as well as ensure livelihood assets, a strong infrastructure, and minimize natural disasters.