Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change with a very high population density. The increasing risks from climate change, sea level rise, and natural and man-made hazards—such as cyclones, storm surge, flooding, land erosion, water logging, and salinity intrusion in soil and water have already adversely affected livelihoods of people living in environmentally fragile coastal areas of Bangladesh. This study identifies the relationship between the characteristics of the farmers and their perception of climate change effects on coastal agriculture at Patuakhali district of Bangladesh. To make the outcomes useful, both qualitative and quantitative approaches of field investigations were done. The perception scores of the farmers ranged from 50 to 88 with a mean and standard deviation 78.03 and 5.72 respectively. Majority (80.20 percent) of the farmers has low to medium perception and 19.80 percent high perceptions were found in this area. The research showed that some respondents had a clear understanding of climate change which directly affecting their lives and livelihoods. Most respondents were also aware of to adapt to the climate change effects on coastal agriculture. However, the most respondents were less able to understand about climate change impacts on agriculture due to several factors which also characterize in this study. Among the selected personal characteristics some were positively related and some were negatively related with their perception on climate change effects on coastal agriculture. The perceived aspects according to the perceived frequency/index were increased temperature, increased disease of crop, longer summer, increased insect infestation, unexpected rainfall, during winter water shortage hinder fish production, increase in poultry disease, unavailability of fish, reduced soil fertility, Saline water intrusion due to increased tidal flow, climate change occur due to deforestation, emission of industrial CO2 cau