Author(s): Nikeeta Pokiya, B Swaminathan, Divya Agarwal

Abstract: The implications of climate variability, be it the delay in seasonal rainfall; its unexpected arrival during the reproductive phase of the crops, or even the increase in night temperature, continue to strike the farmers financially, forcing them to rethink farming as a viable proposition. Nevertheless, the farmers try to cope with or counter climate change effects with adaptation strategies. The present study involving a sample size of 240 farmers from Gujarat, India, employed the multinomial logit model to determine the factors influencing their adaptation strategies to climate change. The findings revealed that among the socio-economic variables, the age of the farmers influenced all the adaptation strategies except the practice of inter/mixed cropping in the study area. For instance, the older the farmers the more they were prone to adopt ‘digging/deepening of wells’ as a climate change adaptation strategy when compared with that of a base strategy of no adaptation. Farm income was also found to be significantly triggering all the adaptation strategies. For every one-unit increase in farm income, the probability of changing the cropping calendar increased by 2.005 times; taking up of micro-irrigation by 1.379 times; practicing inter/mixed cropping by 1.093 times, and digging / deepening of wells by 1.058 times. The study offers the scope to understand why and how farmers continue to take up farming despite facing complications imposed by climate change.

Pages: 28-32 | Views: 84 | Downloads: 9

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