Farmers’ Preparedness for Combating Flood in Fulchari Upazila of Gaibandha District

The purpose of the study was to determine the extent of farmers’ flood preparedness and to explore the relationships between the selected characteristics of the farmers and their extent of flood preparedness. Field work for the study was conducted in Fulchari upazila under Gaibandha district. Data were collected from 112 selected farmers out of a population of 403, who were most flood affected farmers in the study area. Farmers’ flood preparedness was measured by considering six dimensions namely crop, livestock, fish, food and housing, health and sanitation, and security. Majority (77.28 percent) of the respondents had preparedness on food and housing, while 61.71 percent on crop, 50.30 percent on security, 42.78 percent on fish, 42.34 percent on livestock and only 16.07 percent had preparedness on health and sanitation. It was found that majority (73.2 percent) of the respondents had medium preparedness, while 14.3 percent and 12.5 percent had high and low preparedness, respectively. The correlation analysis showed that level of education, farm size, annual family income, extension media contact and social mobility had positive and significant relationships with the extent of farmers’ flood preparedness. On the other hand, age, family size, credit received, organization participation, and fatalism had no relationships with the extent of farmers’ flood preparedness.