Constraints Faced in Adopting Climate-Smart Agriculture among Coastal Farmers in Southern Bangladesh

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) offers an effective approach to tackling food security, enhancing agricultural productivity, and adapting to the challenges posed by climate change. The objectives of the study were to determine and describe the extent of constraints faced by coastal farmers in adopting climate-smart agricultural practices and also to examined the relationships and contributions of selected socio-economic characteristics of the farmers to the extent of constraints they faced. The research was conducted at Kalapara Upazila (Sub district) of Patuakhali District, where data were collected from a sample of 310 coastal farmers using pre-tested interview schedule and selected through multi-stage random sampling technique. The constraint scores of the coastal farmers ranged from 47 to 87, against the possible range of 20 to 100. The mean and standard deviation were 67.16 and 8.83 respectively. Majority (59.03%) of the coastal farmers faced medium level of constraints, while 22.26% faced low and 18.71% faced high levels of constraints in adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices. Correlation analysis revealed that agricultural knowledge, training exposure, communication exposure and cosmopoliteness were significantly and negatively associated with the constraints faced. Conversely, innovativeness and economic motivation had significant positive associations with the level of constraints faced. Regression analysis showed that 18.7% of the variance in the constraints faced by the coastal farmers could be explained by four variables: agricultural knowledge (9.8%), cosmopoliteness (3.4%), economic motivation (3.9%) and training exposure (1.6%). These findings suggest important directions for future initiatives. Effort should focus on designing targeted interventions that enhance farmers access to agricultural knowledge, training program and effective communication channels, as these factors were found to significantly reduce the constraints faced in adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. Additionally, policies should also aim to foster positive attitudes toward innovation and improve socio-economic conditions, thereby reducing the constraints faced in adopting climate-smart agricultural practices in vulnerable coastal regions.