Climate Smart Agriculture Adaptation Resource Inequalities Among Smallholder Farmers in the Barind Tract of Bangladesh: The Role of Governance Inclusion and Institutional Access

Abstract

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is increasingly discussed as an approach for responding to climate risks while supporting agricultural productivity, resilience and sustainable resource use. However, access to the institutional and governance resources that enable farmers to adopt CSA may be uneven. This manuscript develops an empirical framework for examining adaptation-resource inequalities among smallholder farmers in the drought-prone Barind Tract of Bangladesh, with particular attention to governance inclusion and institutional access. The study is aligned with an approved doctoral research design focused on CSA adoption and its contribution to livelihood resilience in Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapainawabganj. A mixed-methods design will combine a structured household survey, GPS-based spatial information, key-informant interviews, focused ethnographic fieldwork, policy and institutional document review, and relevant secondary data. The quantitative component will construct a Climate-Smart Agriculture Adoption Index (CSAAI) and examine socioeconomic, livelihood-capital, institutional, environmental and behavioural determinants using a Fractional Logit model. The institutional component will examine stakeholder roles, financing, extension, policy implementation and barriers through stakeholder mapping, a Power–Interest Matrix, a Barrier Severity Index and thematic analysis. Governance inclusion and institutional access will therefore be treated as mechanisms and explanatory conditions within the broader CSA adoption framework rather than as unsupported outcome measures. The manuscript does not report empirical results because the household survey and fieldwork are scheduled for the subsequent fieldwork phase of the doctoral project. This design provides a transparent basis for assessing whether differences in institutional access and governance inclusion are associated with unequal opportunities to adopt CSA and, subsequently, with livelihood resilience.