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Large changes have taken place in smallholder farming systems in South Asia's coastal areas in recent decades, particularly related to cropping intensity, input availability, climate risks, and off-farm activities. However, few studies have investigated the extent to which these changes have impacted farm-level crop productivity, which is a key driver of food security and poverty in rainfed, low-input, rice-based systems. The objective of this study was to conduct an integrated assessment of variables related to socioeconomic status, farm characteristics, and crop management practices to understand the major factors influencing crop productivity and identify promising leverage points for sustainable development in coastal Bangladesh. Using a panel survey dataset of 32 variables from 502 farm households located within polder (coastal embankment) and outside polder systems during 2005–2015, we employed statistical factor analysis to characterize five independent latent factors named here as Farming Challenges, Economic Status, Crop Management Practices, Asset Endowment, and Farm Characteristics. The factor Farming Challenges explained the most variation among households (31%), with decreases observed over time, specifically households located outside polders. Individual variables contributing to this factor included perceived cyclone severity, household distance to main roads and input-output markets, cropping intensity, and access to extension services. The most important factors for increasing crop productivity on a household and per unit area basis were Asset Endowment and Crop Management Practices, respectively. The former highlights the need for increasing gross cropped area, which can be achieved through greater cropping intensity, while the latter was associated with increased fertilizer, labor, and pesticide input use. Despite the importance of these factors, household poverty trajectory maps showed that changes in off-farm income had played the strongest role in improving livelihoods in this coastal area. This study can help inform development efforts and policies for boosting farm-level crop productivity, specifically through agricultural intensification (higher cropping intensity combined with appropriate and efficient use of inputs) and expanding opportunities for off-farm income as key pathways to bring smallholder households out of poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice cultivation in the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India is often associated with high energy use, calling into question its sustainability. We applied a bootstrapped meta-frontier with a truncated regression to a database of 3,832 rice farms from the input-intensive rice production tracts of the Northwestern IGP as part of an assessment of energy use efficiency aimed at identifying entrypoints for more sustainable and efficient practices. District-specific technical efficiency score ranged between 0.68 and 0.99, with a mean of 0.86–0.90, suggesting an average potential for improvement in energy use efficiency of 10–14% within each district. Observed mean meta-frontier technical efficiency scores ranged between 0.60 and 0.81. On average, energy use efficient farms had 42% or higher energy use efficiency in the districts of Ambala, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Karnal. In contrast, in other districts efficient farms had 5-19% higher energy use efficiency than the inefficient farms. Higher rates of tillage, irrigation, and fertilizer application were identified among inefficient farms, with patterns of energy use efficiency varying to some extent between study districts. Both efficient and inefficient farms in Kapurthala and Ludhiana exhibited similar patterns of energy for tillage and land preparation, whereas the energy output from both efficient and inefficient farms were similar in Kurukshetra. These data suggest that in order to improve the efficiency of energy use in rice farms in the Northwestern IGP, district-level policy interventions and incentives might be required. The methodological approach and evidence provided in this study may be of use to identify pathways toward sustainable energy use in other intensively managed rice production landscapes in other countries. Similar analyses that employ meta-frontier and truncated regression approaches can be carried out for other performance indicators, for example profitability and carbon footprints, to explore and identify management and policy interventions to assist farmers to more appropriately utilize scarce and costly resources. [Display omitted] • Energy input – output data for 3832 farms used for energy-use efficiency assessment. • Bootstrapped data envelopment analysis and truncated regression identified energy-use efficiency drivers. • Mean district-specific technical efficiency score was 0.86–0.90 • Focusing on crop management is more important than socio-economic factors. • Policy planning should focus district wise inefficient rice production practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]