Does the adoption of improved pulse technologies increase farm profitability in the face of climate risk? Evidence from coastal Bangladesh

• Adoption of improved pulses is moderate; BARI Mung-6 shows highest uptake. • Education, training, markets, credit access boost adoption; age effect varies. • PCT adoption raises yield, net returns, BCR, and efficiency across pulse types. • Climate risks, small plots, poor extension, markets, and finance hinder adoption. • Policies should strengthen markets, finance, training, extension, and mechanization. Pulse crops are an important source of income, nutrition, and soil fertility for smallholders in coastal Bangladesh; however, their productivity remains low due to limited adoption of improved technologies. Evidence on how these technologies influence farm performance in climate-stressed environments remains scarce. This study assesses the adoption of improved pulse crop technologies (PCTs) and examines their effects on farm profitability and production efficiency across three major pulse crops. A multistage random sampling approach was used to select 360 farmers (120 mungbean growers, 120 grasspea growers, and 120 cowpea growers) from four coastal districts. The adoption index results show that the overall adoption rate of PCTs is moderate, with the highest adoption rate (0.73) driven by the high uptake of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Mung-6. Adoption is significantly influenced by education level, access to credit & training, market connectivity, and whether farming is the main occupation. A comparative profitability analysis reveals that adopters consistently achieve higher yields, as well as higher gross and net returns and benefit-cost ratios, across all pulse crops. Stochastic frontier analysis estimates show that adopters are more technically efficient than non-adopters. Causal estimates through propensity score matching confirm that adoption leads to meaningful improvements in productivity and profitability, highlighting the economic benefits of using improved PCTs in coastal farming systems. These findings underscore the need for policies that strengthen extension services, increase access to credit and quality inputs, and support the wider dissemination of climate-adaptive PCTs to enhance the resilience and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in vulnerable coastal regions.