Abdullah Al Mamun’s scientific contributions

Being the most populous region, South Asia is home to one-fourth of the population in the world. Along with the aforementioned feature, South Asia is becoming one of the most climatic-hazard-prone regions on the planet. Hence, this study attempts to analyse empirically how economic performance and climate change affect employment in the agriculture sector. The study includes seven South Asian countries’ data, excluding the Maldives, from 1992 to 2021 by applying the most widely used Panel ARDL, which involved pooled mean group (PMG) estimation. In the short run, the effect of past-year employment and temperature is positive, whereas GDP per capita is negatively related to agricultural employment and rainfall is insignificant. However, in the long run, the error correction coefficient is significant, and overall data has been able to establish a long-run relationship. The study concludes that, with the long-run impact for each country, agricultural employment is negatively affected by GDP per capita and temperature. Lastly, the effect of temperature in the long run reveals that climate change has long-term impacts on agriculture employment. We believe that the findings of the study have important implications for policymakers in the future.

This study attempts to analyse empirically how economic performance and climate change affect employment in the agriculture sector. The study includes seven South Asian countries’ data, excluding the Maldives, from 1992 to 2021 by applying the most widely used Panel ARDL that involved pooled mean group (PMG) estimation. In the short-run, the effect of past year employment and temperature is positive, whereas GDP per capita is negatively related to agricultural employment and rainfall is insignificant. However, in long the run, the error correction coefficient is significant, and overall data has been able to establish a long-run relationship. The study concludes that with the long-run impact for each country, agricultural employment is negatively affected by GDP per capita and temperature. Lastly, the effect of temperature, in the long run, reveals that climate change has long-term impacts on agriculture employment. We believe that the findings of the study have important implications for policymakers in future.

Waterlogging is a major problem in the south-western region of Bangladesh; this study was conducted in the eight most affected areas in order to enhance agricultural production by applying Land- and Water-based adaptive and alternative Farming Practices (LWFP). The study was designed to support target (research) farmers by raising one part of their homestead to use for living and agricultural farming, with the other part excavated to store rainwater and use for aquaculture. The study selected two groups of control farmers: those with ponds and those without. The study was conducted in two phases (i.e., phase 1—pilot phase and phase 2—extended phase), with each year divided into three cropping seasons: summer, rainy, and winter. The study found that the research farmers’ income was significantly higher from vegetables (both pilot and extended phases: p < 0.001), dike crops (both pilot and extended phases: p < 0.001), fish (both pilot and extended phases: p < 0.001), livestock (pilot phase: p < 0.01 and extended phase: p < 0.001), and poultry (pilot phase: p < 0.05 and extended phase: p < 0.001) compared to the control farmers. Moreover, the research supported the empowerment of women, which was not found in the control farms. Overall, the research program was embraced by the local communities as a very successful model. Furthermore, the study showed how waterlogging marginally affects very poor people, and that they can cope with this severe problem by adopting various farming practices. Therefore, the application of this research approach is suggested for similarly affected areas.