COVID-19's effects and adaptation strategies in fisheries and aquaculture sector: An empirical evidence from Bangladesh.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the aquaculture and fisheries sector all around the world, with the impact being exacerbated in developing countries. This study is an endeavor to identify consequences of the COVID-19 on fisheries and aquaculture sectors based on primary data collected from Bangladesh as an empirical case study. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews with different supply chain actors while analyzed using descriptive statistics and a problem confrontation index. As results depicted, income and employment across fish farmers, fishers, and traders were severely hurt, with a drastic fall in the market demand, coupled with a severe drop in their fish consumption. As market demand declined, fish farmers must be stocked mature fish for an extra period, and feed costs raised, eventually increasing the overall production cost. Besides, inaccessibility to inputs also made fish production and catch more troublesome. The price of all the major cultured and captured species plunged, leading to a depressing return to farmers, while inputs price underwent a significant increase except for labor and fingerling. However, traders seemed to be the worst sufferers amid striking disruption in fish value chain, which ostracized the preponderance of the traders from the chain. Some of the prime obstacles that constrained the production and trading process were but not limited to higher transportation costs, labor shortage, inability to pay for the wage, and reduced consumer demand across fish farmers, fishers, and traders. Nevertheless, our article further identified a myriad of strategies that the fish farmers, fishers, and traders followed to heal the scar of the fisheries and aquaculture sector with hands-on actions.

Review of environmental challenges in the Bangladesh aquaculture industry.

The increasing population and plateaued capture fishery landings have led to increasing demand for aquaculture products. However, environmental challenges are critical barriers to the sustainable development of aquaculture in developing countries. This review critically evaluates the environmental barriers facing aquaculture development in Bangladesh while laying out a roadmap for future development and spatial planning. An increase in the area used for aquaculture most often results in increasing pressure on natural resources such as land, water, energy, and the sources used for feed. Some of the negative externalities that this review focuses on are effluent discharge, the spread of diseases, and conflicts over land use with other ecosystem users. A way forward is to internalize these negative externalities and their costs into production decisions by farmers. Formulation of incentive-based pragmatic regulations can pave a forward path to increased environmental sustainability.

Effects of healthcare spending on public health status: An empirical investigation from Bangladesh.

The escalation of healthcare spending in many nations, particularly in emerging countries such as Bangladesh, may be largely attributed to the growing demand for healthcare services. Evidently, there has been a significant expansion in the public funding allocated to the health sector in Bangladesh, intending to enhance health outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of healthcare expenditure on health outcomes, specifically focusing on the reduction in different mortality rates and the transmission of various infectious diseases. A total of 30 years of data (1990-2019) on the health sector of Bangladesh were collected from different national and international sources. The Vector Autoregression with Exogenous Variables (VARX) model was employed to determine the effects of healthcare expenditure on health outcomes. Results revealed that the per capita health expenditure and the number of doctors showed a significant positive impact on life expectancy and maternal and child health. Also, the government's annual budget on the health sector and number of doctors had a significant positive impact on lowering deaths by Diphtheria, Cholera, Tuberculosis, and Malaria diseases. In order to develop a sustainable healthcare system within the nation, it is imperative for the government to prioritize the allocation of sufficient and effective healthcare funding to cater to the needs of the populace.

Perception of and adaptation to climate change: the case of wheat farmers in northwest Bangladesh.

Climate change's impact on crop production is a global concern. A better understanding of farmers' perceptions of climate change and adaptation strategies will benefit farmers and policymakers in outlining an effective adaptation mechanism to climate change. Therefore, this study assessed wheat farmers' perceptions of climate change, identified major adaptation strategies, factors influencing adaptations, and barriers to effective adaptation by surveying 160 wheat farmers in northwest Bangladesh. The results revealed that farmers experienced more frequent droughts due to higher temperatures, decreased and irregular precipitation, reduced ground and surface water availability, and shorter winter seasons over the last two decades. Key adaptation strategies identified were more irrigation, switching to other crops, and changing fertilizer and insecticide usage. Multinomial logit model results indicate that farming experience, access to climate information and extension services, access to subsidies, farm size, family size, and electricity for irrigation were the significant factors influencing farmers' adaptation decisions. Limited access to climate information, inadequate knowledge of appropriate adaptation measures, and low price of wheat represented major adaptation barriers. The study recommends strengthening agricultural research and extension services to farmers, including education and training, to develop effective adaptation strategies to climate change.

Willingness to pay for adopting conservation tillage technologies in wheat cultivation: policy options for small-scale farmers.

Traditional farming involves intensive tillage causing soil degradation and erosion. On the contrary, conservation tillage technologies are expensive to purchase for small-scale farmers. However, the adoption of these technologies reduces soil tillage costs which lead to reduced overall production costs. In this milieu, this study assessed the willingness to pay (WTP) for adopting conservation tillage technologies in terms of individual and cooperative payment systems using the primary data collected from 320 wheat farmers in Bangladesh. The contingency valuation method (CVM) was followed to estimate their WTP, and factors affecting WTP were identified through the logistic regression model. The results elicited farmers perceived that conservation tillage technologies would facilitate by reducing costs, timely land preparation, seed sowing and planting, appropriate positioning of seed and fertilizers, and higher soil moisture. Nevertheless, most of the farmers wanted to adopt conservation tillage technologies, while about 79% would like to pay for it. Although farmers' average WTP for individual purchases was higher, most were interested in the cooperative systems for adopting conservation tillage machines. Farmers' WTP for both individual and cooperative purchases was influenced by location of wheat production, farming experience, and demonstration plots. Additionally, individual payment system was affected by the amount of wheatland and training while credit affected the cooperative purchase system. Besides, the farmers would like to expand their wheat farms by approximately 73.33% after adopting conservation tillage technologies. The refusal to pay for conservation tillage technologies was mostly due to low-quality spare parts, lack of technical understanding, and unawareness of the technology. This study suggests that providing training among farmers and operators, credit support, and making machines and spare parts available in the nearest markets would support adopting conservation technologies. Besides, cooperative-based payment system should be formed to help small-scale farmers adopt conservation tillage techniques for sustainable agriculture in an environment-friendly way.

Heading towards sustainable environment: exploring the dynamic linkage among selected macroeconomic variables and ecological footprint using a novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach.

Ever since the emancipation of a country, its environmental quality has undergone a significant transition during the development phases; Bangladesh is no exception. Bangladesh is facing a serious threat in the age of global warming, and climate change as the country is looking forward in achieving the SDGs by 2030. Yet, there is a dearth of study regarding the relationship among crucial macroeconomic drivers and ecological footprint (a proxy for environmental degradation). Under the circumstances, this study explores the effects of economic growth, capital formation, urbanization, trade openness, energy use, and technological innovation on the ecological footprint by adopting the novel dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) simulations approach for Bangladesh, using annual frequency data from 1972 to 2017. Empirical results from the bounds test ascertained that there exists a long-run equilibrium association among the outlined variables. Furthermore, the novel dynamic ARDL simulation results revealed that Bangladesh is yet to achieve the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. It was observed that the Bangladesh economy is still at the scale stage of its economic trajectory, emphasizing economic growth relative to her environmental status. However, capital formation, urbanization, and energy use seemed to degrade environmental quality, while trade openness and technological innovation upgraded the environmental quality. Putting it more elaborately, a unit escalation in GDP per capita increases the ecological footprint by 0.829% in the long run, while a unit increase in energy consumption upsurges the ecological footprint by 1.074% and 0.761% in the long run and short run, respectively. As regards technology innovation, one unit increase in it cutbacks the ecological footprint by 0.596% in the long run. Furthermore, the frequency domain causality unveiled the long-run feedback effect between economic growth and ecological footprint. The study further presents possible recommendations that can sustainably address environmental issues, keeping the economy buoyant.

Does climate change stimulate household vulnerability and income diversity? Evidence from southern coastal region of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries globally, where the livelihood of agro-based dependent people became vulnerable due to different natural hazards, especially in the southern coastal part. This study investigates the influence of climate change on household vulnerability and income diversity, data collected from the climate-vulnerable coastal areas of Bangladesh. Both panel data regression and structural equation model were employed to examine the vulnerability status, whereas income diversity was measured through diversity index and "Type-66" livelihood strategy. Results reveal that sources of income have diversified over time. However, the study also reveals that climate change-especially the increase in salinity has affected crop production, resulting in increased income vulnerability of small and marginal farmers who are highly reliant on farm income. Moreover, findings reveal that climate change has influenced households to diversify into low-income sources that do not help to overcome their income vulnerability. Therefore, a cooperative land management system, establishment of embankment, training, and skill development programs are needed to generate feasible alternative income sources to improve the livelihood of coastal people.