Climate-Resilient Adaptation Strategies in Potato Production and Major Factors Influencing It in Karnataka, India

Abstract

The World is already experiencing climate change and it has profound effects on both agriculture and horticulture. Hence present study attempts to identify climate resilient adaptation strategies in potato production and major factors influencing it in Karnataka, India. For the study Kolar and Hassan districts were selected based on their climate vulnerability status and potato crop was selected for the analysis. Primary data for the study were collected from 160 sample respondents through well structure, pre-tested interview schedule during 2021-22. To achieve the proposed objectives, descriptive statistics such as percentage and binary logistic regression was employed. The study identified six major climate-resilient adaptation strategies adopted by the respondents in potato cultivation such as early sowing, more than the recommended dose of pesticide application, preventive plant protection measures (in advance), improving water captures, drying of seed tubers before sowing and adapting heat/drought resistant varieties. Among six strategies, majority (92.50 % of Kolar and 72.50 % of Hassan) of the respondents adopted improving water captures as a major adaptation strategy.  Binary regression revealed that education (0.5893), family size (0.7592), farming experience (1.0938), access to weather alerts (2.0914), and awareness of climate change (1.3409) had positive and significant impact on adaptation behavior of the sample respondents (pooled).