TANDEM TECHNOLOGIES AND DROUGHT-RISK MANAGEMENT IN BANGLADESH
Cross-posted from the IFPRI website written by Rebecca Sullivan
Source:IRRI
As climate change spurs increasingly unpredictable weather—such as droughts and floods—farmers find themselves on the defensive. Unpredictable weather wreaks havoc on both harvests and farmers, particularly smallholder farmers ill-equipped to absorb these weather-related shocks. Because of the inconsistent harvests due to such shocks, farmers are less likely to invest in productivity-enhancing technologies and often remain trapped in a cycle of poor harvests and persistent poverty.
In their discussion paper, Demand for Complementary Financial and Technological Tools for Managing Drought Risk, IFPRI researchers Patrick S. Ward, David Spielman, Neha Kumar, Sumedha Minocha, and colleague David Ortega gauge farmers’ preferences for drought-risk management tools and the manner in which they are marketed and sold in Bangladesh.
The researchers employed choice experiments along with a household survey to pinpoint farmers’ demand for two products: drought-tolerant rice and weather index insurance, sold separately as well as bundled in a package.
