Food Security Challenges in SAARC Region: Do Agricultural Credit and Renewable Energy Enhance Food Production?

Abstract

The climate changes in the member states of South Asian association of regional corporation (SAARC) are gravely affecting the food crop production and posing different challenges to food security. This study aims to examine the effect of climate change on food security by incorporating the role of agricultural credit in climate adaptation. A panel data set for the SAARC economies for the period 1999-2023. After testing the stationarity, the Pooled mean group autoregressive distributive lag (PMG-ARDL) approach is used for the estimation. The empirical findings show that climate changes including carbon dioxide emissions, precipitation, and temperature changes significantly affect food production in South Asia. The carbon emissions and temperature vagaries affect food production negatively while the precipitation affects food production positively in the long run. The agricultural credit encourages farmers and stimulates food production in the region. The coefficient on agricultural credit is found to be positive and statistically significant indicating that the adverse effects of climate change on food security may be reduced by using agricultural credit as a tool for the climate adaptation and climate-resilient infrastructure in the SAARC region.