A Review of Impacts and Mitigation Strategies of Climate Change on Dryland Agriculture

Abstract

The climate change poses a great challenge to the agriculture sector compared to any other sector in the country as it is highly a weather dependent enterprise. The study results reveal that the climatic variation such as the occurrence of drought due to irregular distribution, lesser rainfall have a high level of impact on the dryland farming by adversely affecting the yield levels of the crops. The farmer’s perception of the impact of climate change on the crops grown in Rainfed condition, such as yield reduction and reduction in net revenue. The farmers already act to the changes in the climatic changes both by adopting the technological coping mechanisms on the positive side and negatively through shifting to other professions especially more pronounced in dryland farming regions of the country. It is concluded that the small and medium Rainfed farmers were highly vulnerable to climate change and to a larger extent the small and medium Rainfed farmers adopted coping mechanisms for climate change compared to large farmers. The studies suggest that as the impact of climate change is intensifying day by day, it should be addressed through developing appropriate mitigation strategies and supported through policy perspective at the earliest to avoid short-term effects such as yield and income loss and long-term effects such as quitting agricultural profession by the dryland farmers of the country.