Climate Change Mitigation and Social Sustainability in Agriculture in the Sub Himalaya Region

Abstract

The present study was conducted in sub-Himalaya region of India where in the two districts of the region such as Cooch Behar and Malda districts are selectively selected for the study. Four blocks in the selected districts were randomly selected. In each block, one village was selected for the study. An exhaustive list of agricultural producers in each village was prepared and from this list, eighty agricultural producers were randomly selected. The data were collected with the help of structure interview schedule through personal interview methods. The climate change aberration in socio-cultural milieu was delineated in terms of mitigation strategy of climate change discourses, the impact of climate change on agricultural production and education is considered as predicted variables and other six nos. of attributes of socio-economic and cognitive attributes of the agricultural producer were considered as predictor variables for the study. Data were processed into statistical tools i.e. frequency, percentage, correlation analysis and regression analysis. It was found that education and farm size are positively and significantly associated with the awareness and knowledge on climate change. Results reveal that the variables farming experience and farm size are negatively and significantly contributing towards the impacts of climate change on education. It was seen that farming experience is negatively and significantly contributing towards impacts of climate change on agricultural production. The finding reveals that 88.75% of the farmers had modified their cropping pattern including the scientific cultivation practices to adapt the impact of climate change.