International Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension

Vol. 2(2), pp. 026-030, July, 2016. www.premierpublishers.org, ISSN: 2167-0477

IJAEE

Research Article

Use of climate change resilient technologies

vegetable cultivation by the farmers of Bangladesh

in

Md. Masum Abdullah1*, Mohammad Barad Hossain Chowdhury2, Md. Ahaduzzaman3

1,3

Department of Agricultural Extension and Information System, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka,
Bangladesh.
2
Bangladesh Parliament, Deputy Secretary, Government of Bangladesh.
The main purpose of the research work was to determine the use of climate change resilient
technologies in vegetable cultivation by the farmers of Bangladesh. Data were collected from
randomly selected 112 farmers of Haibatpur Union by using an interview schedule. Data were
collected during 25th June to 25th July, 2013. Appropriate scales were developed in order to
measure the variables. Correlation test was used to ascertain the relationships between the
concerned dependent and independent variables of the research work. The dependent variable
was use of climate change resilient technology and the independent variables were age,
education, farm size, annual income, credit availability, farming experience, source of farmland,
training exposure, innovativeness, risk orientation and frequency of natural disaster. The
highest proportion (81.3 percent) of the farmers had medium use while 9.8 percent had low use
and only 8.9 percent had high use of climate change resilient technologies. Accordingly, the
uses of climate change resilient technologies are positively significant to reduce the
vulnerability of climate change. Education, farm size, annual income, source of farmland,
innovativeness and training exposure and frequency of natural disaster had positive
relationship to adopt such technologies, while age and farming experience had negative
relationship with their adoption of climate change resilient technologies.
Key words: Climate, Resilient, Vegetable, Technologies, Farmer, Bangladesh

INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh has an overwhelmingly agricultural economy.
Agriculture accounts for 32% of its gross domestic
product (GDP), and absorbs 63% of the countrys labor
force (BBS, 2014). On the other hand the agricultural
sector of Bangladesh is highly susceptible to the effect of
climate change (Huq et al., 2015). Traditionally the
agriculture of Bangladesh is dominated by the production
of rice to ensure better food security. However, recently
the government of Bangladesh has called for a departure
from rice-led growth to a more diversified production
base that includes several non-rice crops (Hoque, 2000).
The climate of Bangladesh is unique for vegetable
production. Vegetable that is any herbaceous plant
whose fruits, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, leaves etc is

used as food. Nearly 100 different types of vegetable

comprising both local and exotic type are grown in
Bangladesh (BBS, 2014).

*Corresponding author:
Md. Masum Abdullah,
Lecturer, Department of Agricultural Extension and
Information
System,
Sher-e-Bangla
Agricultural
University,
Dhaka,
Bangladesh.
Email:
kamranmasum@yahoo.com, Tel.: +8801717606573.
2
Co-author
E-mail:
baratchy@gmail.com,
Tel.:
+8801819128493
3
Co-author Email: ahadraju_zaman@yahoo.com, Tel.:
+8801913580861

Abdullah et al.

026

Vegetable is important for both the nutritional and

financial point of view. Its contribution toward the food
security in Bangladesh is also mentionable. However, the
availability of vegetable is only about 1/5th of the
recommended requirement of 200 g/person/day(BBS,
2013). Nevertheless vegetables contribute 3.2% of the
agricultural Gross Domestic Product (BBS, 2014).
Bangladesh earned US $ 41.11 million from export of
agricultural products in 2012-2013, which contributed
0.54% to total export earnings (BER, 2014).
Bangladesh is one of the major horticultural countries in
South Asia (Ali, 2000). Several studies have pointed out
that there is considerable potential for growing
horticultural crops in Bangladesh (Alam, 2005). Among
the horticultural produce majority percentage comprises
to vegetable. Farmers who are engaged in the production
of vegetables often earn higher incomes than those
engaged in the production of cereal crops alone
(Weinberger and Lumpkin, 2005). Vegetables like
eggplant, radish, cabbage, cauliower, and pumpkin gave
returns at least three times higher than rice (Ateng,
1998). For better production and to get more financial
benefit from vegetable cultivation use of some climate
change resilient technologies or adaptation technologies
is at utmost importance. Use of organic fertilizer, high
yielding variety, IPM etc. would be feasible for good and
better production. According to the definition of UNFCCC
(2005), climate change resilient technology or adaptation
technology means the application of technology in order
to reduce the vulnerability, or enhance the resilience, of a
natural or human system to the [impact] of climate
change. It is suggested that the current and future
vulnerability to climate change can be reduce by using
such technologies ADB (2014). These technologies can
be categorized into two different types, such as, hard and
soft technology. The hard technologies include the
equipment and infrastructure while the soft technologies
include
management
practice
and
institutional
management (Christiansen et al., 2011). This research
only considers two locally available resilient technologies
such as (i) use of high yielding varieties (HYV) and
Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
As a climate change vulnerable country, the agricultural
sector of Bangladesh needs to be highly adaptive to the
climate resilience mechanism (Huq et al., 2015). The
basic requirement for adaptation is to utilize the
opportunity to adopt climate change resilient technologies
by the farmers. On this regards, this research is an
attempt to understand the adoption capacity of the
farmers. The main purpose of the study is to determine
the use of climate change resilient technologies in
vegetable cultivation. The study aims at provide
information regarding the following objectives:
To determine and describe the selected characteristics of
the farmer.

To explore the relationships between the selected

characteristics of the farmer and their use of climate
change resilient technologies in vegetable cultivation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was conducted at Haibatpur Union (lowest
local government tire) under Sadar Upazila (sub-district)
of Jessore district which is very famous for vegetable
production. The farmers of 12 selected villages from
Haibatpur union were constituted as the population of the
study. Out of 1125 vegetable farmers a sample of 112
(10% of 1125) were selected randomly as the samples
for this study. Besides this, 10 percent of the sample size
was selected randomly from the population which was
included in the reserve list supposed to be interviewed
only when a respondent in original sample was
unavailable during data collection.
Data were collected with an interview schedule which
was pretested during the period of 25 June to 25 July,
2013. Descriptive analysis such as range, number and
percentage distribution, mean and standard deviation
were used whenever necessary. Pearson product
moment coefficient was used in order to explore the
relationship between the concerned variables.
Farmers of survey area (Haibatpur Union) usually
habituated in using several traditional cultivation
technologies in vegetable cultivation, i.e. use of chemical
fertilizer; use of local varieties; traditional way of
weedicide and most importantly they use numerous
insecticides and pesticides which they bought directly
from local market. In view of that scenario to adopt
climate change resilient technologies and to survey the
existing uses by the farmers some technologies were
taken into consideration. Those climate change resilient
technologies were; a. use of organic fertilizer (cow dung,
green manure, compost, farm yard manure etc.), b. use
of integrated pest management (IPM), c. use of high
yielding variety of vegetables.
Use of technology was measured by using 4 point rating
scale. Score 3 was assigned for frequently use
response and thus score 2, 1, 0 was assigned for
occasionally, rarely and not at all responses
respectively. The respondents were asked to indicate
their use of 12 recommended technologies. Thus the
extent of use scores of a respondent could range from 0
to 36, 0 indicating low use of technologies and 36
indicate highest use of recommended technologies in
vegetable cultivation.
Age of the respondents was measured in terms of actual
years from their birth to the time of interview. Education
was measured as the ability of an individual vegetable
farmer to read and write or formal education
(school/college) completed up to a certain standard. It
was expressed in terms of year of schooling. A score of

Int. J. Agric. Educ. Ext.

027

Table 1. Distribution of the vegetable farmers constituting the population, Sample and reserve list in different
villagers in Haibatpur Union

Name of Villages
Manikdi
Borohaibotpur
Chotohoibatpur
Natuapara
Lalitadaho
Mathurapur
Shahbajpur
Somospur
Nischintopur
Baliaghat
Doherpara
Rahomatpur
Total

No. of farmers
Population
225
120
40
155
145
105
70
42
36
82
63
42
1125

Sample
22
12
4
16
14
11
7
4
4
8
6
4
112

Reserve List
3
2
1
3
2
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
20

Figure1. A map showing Haibatpur union under Jessore district

one (1) was assigned for each year of schooling

completed and if the respondent did not know how to read
and write, his education score was given as 0 (zero) and
a score of 0.5 (half) was given to that respondent who
could sign his name only. Farm size of a farmer referred
to the total area of land in hectare on which his/her family
carried out farming operations. Annual income was
measured in thousand taka. Credit availability was
measured in thousand taka. Source of farmland
was measured in hectare. Farming experience was
measured by score. Score one (1) was assigned for
each year of working. Training exposure of a farmer
was measured by the total number of days he/she
participated in different training programs. Innovativeness
of a respondent was measured by summing up his/her
scores for extent of use of ten selected technologies with

five alternative responses as within one year, within two

years, within three years, within four years and not at
all and weights were assigned as 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0
respectively. Thus the score could range from 0 to 40,
where 0 indicating low innovativeness and 40 indicating
very high innovativeness. Risk orientation was measured
by summing up his/her scores for extent of risk faced
during use and application of vegetable technologies with
four alternative responses as high, medium, low and
not at all and weights were assigned to these responses
as 3, 2, 1 and 0 respectively. Thus, the risk orientation
score of a respondent could range from 0 to 36, where
zero indicating low risk orientation d 36 indicating very
high risk orientation. Frequency of natural disaster was
measured by summing up the four alternative responses
as regular, occasional, rare and not at all and weights

Abdullah et al.

028

Table 2. Selected characteristics of the vegetable farmers.

Characteristics

Range
Possible

Categories
Observed

Age(years)
-

18-60

0-18

Education(schooling
years)

Farm size(hectare)
-

0.04-1.39

Annual
income(000Taka)
Credit
availability(000Taka
)

20 to 600

0 to 125

2 to 40

Farming
experience(score)

Source
of
farmland(hectare)

0-1.33

Training
exposure(score)

0 to 3

Innovativeness(scor
e)

10-35

Risk
(score)

19-37

orientation

Young
Middle-aged
Old
Illiterate/can sign only(upto .5)
Primary level (1-5)
Secondary level (6-10)
Above secondary level
(above 10)
Small farm(0.04-0.07)
Medium farm(0.08-0.61)
Large farm(above 0.61)
Low income (upto 60)
Medium income (61-300)
High income (above 300)
Low (upto 40)
Medium (41-80)
High (above 80)
Low (upto 10)

Farmers
No. %
26 23.2
72 64.3
14 12.5
22 19.6
14 12.5
66 58.9
10
8.9
3
97
12
24
80
8
89
17
6
30

2.7
86.6
10.7
21.4
71.4
7.10
79.5
15.2
5.4
26.8

Medium (10-25)

63

56.3

High (above 25)

19

17.0

Small farm land(0-0.2)

Medium farm land(0.21-0.6)
Large farm land(above 0.61)
No training experience(0)
Low training experience(1-3)

53
51
8
74
38

Low (upto 10)

Medium (11-25)
High (above 25)
Low (Upto 24)

89
21

Medium (25-30)

55

49.1

High (above 30)

49

43.8

Medium (6-10)

35
67

31.2
59.8

High (above 10)

10

Mean

SD

40.00

9.63

6.78

4.07

0.344

0.265

129.65

101.6
0

19.33

28.62

18.16

9.41

47.3
0.289
45.5
7.1
66.1
33.9
0.61
1.8
79.5
18.8
7.1

0.231

0.997

21.49

4.95

29.57

3.27

6.99

2.88

34.90

4.15

Low (Upto 5)
Frequency of natural
disaster (score)

2-13

Low use (upto 30)

Use of technology
(score)

19-47

11

9.8

Medium use (31-40)

91

81.3

High use (above 40)

10

8.9

SD = Standard deviation
Source: Authors estimation

were assigned to these responses as 3, 2, 1 and 0

respectively and score could range from 0 to 15.

Relationships between the selected characteristics of

the farmers and their use of recommended
technologies in vegetable cultivation

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Selected characteristics of the vegetable farmers

The summary result of correlation analysis has been

presented in Table 3.

Int. J. Agric. Educ. Ext.

029

Table 3. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient analysis showing relationships between the selected characteristics of the
farmers and their use of recommended technologies in vegetable cultivation (N = 112)

Calculated value of r
-0.223*

Independent Variable
Age
Education
Farm size
Annual income
Credit availability
Farming experience
Source of farmland
Training exposure
Innovativeness
Risk orientation
Frequency of natural disaster

0.288**
0.298**
0.260**
0.109
-0.255**
0.222*
0.339**
0.245**
-0.127
0.276**

Dependent variable

Use of climate change resilient

technologies
in
vegetable
cultivation by the farmers of
Bangladesh

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level of probability

Table 4. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient analysis showing relationships between the use of technologies by
the farmers and some climate change resilient technologies

Dependent variable

Use
of
technology

climate

resilient

Climate
change
technologies
Organic Fertilizer

resilient

Integrated
Management(IPM)
High Yielding Variety

Pest

Calculated value of r
0.219**
0.339

0.265**

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level of probability

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level of probability
Source: Authors estimation

Table 3 reveals that education , farm size, annual

income, source of farmland, training exposure,
innovativeness and frequency of natural disaster had
significant positive relationship with their use of climate
change resilient technologies. On the other hand age,
farming experience had significant negative relationship.

(2005). Crop diversification is referred as a rational and

cost effective technique to build resilience to climate
change (Lin, 2011). It is also suggested that more diverse
agro-ecosystems with a broader range of traits and
functions will be better able to perform under changing
condition of the environment (Lin, 2011).

Relationship between the use of technologies by the

farmers and some climate change resilient
technologies

CONCLUSION

From the table 4 it is revealed that the use of climate

resilient technologies are highly effective (positively
significant relationship) to overcome the adversity of
climate change in vegetable cultivation. However, the
level of education of the farmers and exposure to training
acts as important catalyst to use these technologies.
Similar result was also found by Salinger et al.(2005).
According to Salinger et al.(2005), a number of
technologies and strategies that could help to reduce
vulnerabilities of agriculture and forestry to climate
change. Changing cropping pattern may act as an
adaptation strategies as suggested by Stigter et al.

Based on the study result, it can be concluded that

education as well as training can help the farmers to
understand the extent of climate change effect. Proper
training combined with the higher level of education
creates the climate awareness and innovativeness to use
climate resilient technologies. Furthermore, the frequency
of natural disaster enflame the farmers to respond
climate change stimuli positively. As a climate vulnerable
country, adoption of climate change resilient technologies
among the farmers of Bangladesh is strongly evident.
Climate change resilient technologies are still scanty to
the farmers, although they are very much interested to
adopt those technologies. This research strongly

Abdullah et al.

030

recommended that the policy makers should formulate

proper policy to adopt those technologies among the
farmers.

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Accepted 08 June, 2016
Citation: Abdullah M, Chowdhury MBH, Ahaduzzaman M
(2016). Use of climate change resilient technologies in
vegetable cultivation by the farmers of Bangladesh.
International Journal of Agricultural Education and
Extension, 2(2): 026-030.

Copyright: 2016 Abdullah et al. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative
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use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
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