DETERMINANTS OF THE ADOPTION OF CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an effective approach of transforming and reorienting agricultural development under in the context of climate change. The objectives of the study were to determine and describe some characteristics of the farmers, to estimate the extent of adoption of CSA, and to determine the determinants of the adoption of CSA. Data was collected from 105 farmers of 4 villages of two unions. The farmers who used CSA were the population of the study. These Unions namely Dauki and Jamjami in Alamdanga Upazilla under chuadanga district were purposefully selected due to easy communication as well as easy contact with the farmers. Data were collected during the period from February 20 to March 20, 2018. Descriptive statistics, multiple regressions (Y) were employed for analysis. 58.1% farmers partially adopted the CSA, while 23.8 and 18.1 percent of them had not and fully adopted the CSA, respectively. Education, organizational participation, access to ICT and farmers perceptions on the effects of CSA were key determinant of the adoption of CSA and all variables collectively explained 47.7% variation in the adoption of CSA. It is concluded that farmers’ learning, training, knowledge development and skills improvement are crucial to CSA adoption. To increase the adoption of CSA, the policy makers could invest on improving capacity of farmers organizations (e.g. farmers field schools) and enhancing farmers’ access to ICTs such as mobile phones and television with a view to get oriented to the latest CSA practices and technologies like alternative wetting and dry methods.