Cost-benefit of promising adaptations for resilient development in climate hotspots: evidence from lower Teesta basin in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract It is very likely that climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as floods, flash floods, storms, heat and cold waves, riverbank erosion, and drought in the river basin of Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. This could mean detrimental impacts to the poor and marginal people in the lower Teesta basin (LTB) in Bangladesh. Though adaptation involves financial costs, the farmers' practicing adaptation in LTB experience diminished crop loss and damage. This study was aimed at assessing the promising adaptation practices, their economic return, and social welfare in the LTB through an extended cost-benefit analysis. The study suggests that among the adaptations, shallow tube-well (STW) based irrigation practice in both sandy and loamy soil has the highest marginal adaptation cost (MAC) but the lowest benefit-cost ratio (BCR). The deep tube-well (DTW) based irrigation practice generates superior benefits to the farmers compared to the STW based farming due to initial establishment by the government which is very expensive. Maize farming as an alternate and less resource consumptive cropping produces nearly five times higher economic benefits than the costs which can be acknowledged as the most profitable and resilient adaptation option in the LTB. Though MAC is relatively low for the short-duration variety (SDV) rice among the promising adaptations, its economic profitability is 62% lower than that of the maize cultivation. However, having higher BCR the maize cultivation generates US$86 higher welfare to the farmers than the SDV rice which may strengthen the farmer's preference of maize cultivation over the SDV rice. It can be stated with high confidence that strategic adaptation planning, soft credit, technological advancement, and subsidized agricultural inputs will encourage the farmers to carry out adaptation options which may reduce climate-induced loss and damages for the farmers and build socio-economic resilience in the LTB and other similar areas of South Asia.