Farmers’ Adaptation to Climate Change in Coastal Bangladesh: Implications for Climate Services

Abstract

While the entire country of Bangladesh is exposed to climate stress, the densely populated coastal region along the Bay of Bengal constitutes a vulnerability frontline of climate change. In the region whose livelihoods are largely dependent on farming and fishing face the ever-increasing adverse climate impacts on a daily basis. As a response, local people are actively engaged in various community-based adaptations. However, there is little known about how much these communities use science-based weather and climate information when making their farm-related adaptation decisions. Despite its potential to reduce climate impacts, the establishment and use of locally relevant climate services has been slow. This dissertation research draws upon the concept of social vulnerability and asks in what ways public information, in form of climate services, can improve farm-related adaptation decisions in coastal Bangladesh. It addresses three particular interlinked aspects of broader challenges of use of weather and climate information in farm-related decision-making in resource-poor environment. First, this research investigates how unequal power relations influence social vulnerability and differential adaptive capacity. Second, it analyzes how smallholder coastal farmers differentiated by farm size, gender, ethnicity, and religion are able to use weather and climate information. Third, this research discusses how the climate services efforts in Bangladesh can overcome the usability gap that often limits the production, translation, transfer and use of various climate information tools. Based on empirical research in 2017 and 2018, this dissertation suggests that smallholder farmers, and farmers with religious and ethnic minority background have less access to adaptive resources like climate services. Even though this research focuses on coastal Bangladesh, the insights are relevant to other regions facing similar social and environmental challenges.