Enhancing food security through agricultural credit in environmentally vulnerable regions: insights from Northern Bangladesh

This study aimed to examine the impact of agricultural credit on enhancing food security among marginal farmers using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Additionally, it sought to quantify the effects of flood, agricultural drought, and riverbank erosion on food security through remote sensing techniques. To achieve these goals, a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in northern Bangladesh, gathering responses from 597 participants across the study regions. Analysis showed that the greater portion of respondents 44.44% agreeing and 13.9% strongly agreeing perceived a decline in reliance on informal credit due to the expansion of formal credit sources. However, 45.1% acknowledged that credit could impose financial burdens, and nearly half indicated that loan repayments affected their food consumption patterns and dietary choices. SEM results demonstrated a significant influence of agricultural credit on marginal farmers’ food security, while agricultural policies showed limited impact on improving food security outcomes. Geospatial analysis confirmed that riverbank erosion, flooding, and agricultural drought were prevalent during the study period and had a substantial adverse impact on crop yields. The integrated insights from geospatial and survey data suggest that, particularly in environmentally vulnerable areas, agricultural credit serves as a crucial mechanism for enhancing food security among marginal farmers. Consequently, government agencies should strengthen oversight of credit providers, and policymakers ought to revise agricultural policies to improve credit access for marginal farmers, especially in regions facing environmental vulnerabilities.