Farmers’ perceptions, attitudes and adaptions towards climate change in selected semi-arid districts of India: Implications from an adaptation view

Abstract

The effects of climate change on agriculture are being witnessed all over the world. Rainfed agriculture is likely to be impacted severely in view of its’ high dependency on monsoon, the likelihood of increased extreme weather events due to aberrant behavior of south west monsoon. Anantapur, Akola, Solapur and Bijapur districts in India were selected for the study because, rainfed area is more than irrigated area and rainfall is the most critical factor affecting crop production in these districts. Major perceptions of climate change in the four rainfed study districts were prolonged dry spells, rise in temperatures, and delayed and shorter rains. Major adaptation measures towards climate change in four study districts were insurance, change in planting dates and cropping pattern. Majority of farmers positively agreed with attitude towards climate change statements which augurs well for current and future adaptation actions. As farm level adaptation becomes an increasingly important across the world, policies at all levels will need to be accounted for appropriate factors, including perceptions and how perceptions affect human behavior and adaptive actions. Adaptation through transformation (in the present study diversify to livestock and work as labor) has the potential to become an inclusive, engaging and empowering process that contributes to alternative and sustainable development pathways which needs to be encouraged. The present findings contribute to research on climate change adaptation decision making both as a function of intra-individual processes such as knowledge, attitudes; and extra-individual factors like policies, infrastructure, information, forecasts etc. along with socio-economic contributory factors which deserve due attention in the light of scaling up adaptations.