Assessment of household perceptions to climate adaptation for resilient rural development planning in India

Abstract

Enhancing resilience of rural communities to climate change requires a clear understanding of micro-level perceptions and adaptation issues and their integration with the rural developmental framework. We collected household level data to understand grass-root perspectives on climate variability, impacts and barriers to adaptation in two different districts; Moga, Punjab and Mahbubnagar, Telangana. Further the study uses meteorological data to validate farmers perceptions. The results show that change in the quantum and distribution of rainfall, rising temperature, ground water depletion, lower farm income, higher unemployment and rural migration are some of the major impacts of climate change. Moreover, farmers perceptions on climate variability were consistent with the observed climate trend. Against climatic variations farmers were making shift to crop varieties of suitable duration, curtailing expenditure, borrowing and participating in employment guarantee schemes. However, farmers responses were constrained by barriers like lack of accessibility to weather information, limited knowledge on the cost-benefit of adaptation, inaccessibility to climate smart technologies, inadequate financial resources and unawareness on welfare schemes. The study concludes there is a need to reorient the developmental programmes at the macro-level considering micro-level needs and constraints for climate resilient agriculture.