Vulnerability of Farmers to Climate Change in Central Dry Zone of Karnataka

Abstract

Changing climatic parameters will have a huge effect on life and nature. Climate change will be best viewed through the increase in temperature, melting of ice and rapid rise in sea level. Such changes causes severe problems to human beings and other forms of life. Vulnerability to climate change is intimately related to poverty, as the poor are least able to respond to climatic stimuli. Further, certain regions of the world are more harshly affected by the effects of climate change than others. With this background the present study was carried out know the vulnerability of farmers to climate change in the Central Dry Zone of Karnataka with exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity as the dimensions. The study was conducted in the Central Dry Zone (Zone - IV) of Karnataka, India. Tiptur and Chiknayakanahalli taluks from Tumakuru district, Kadur from Chikmagalore district, Arsikere from Hassan district and Challakere from Chitradurga district were selected purposively for the study. The data was collected from 150 respondents. To exposure of farmers to climate change, rainfall and temperature were selected and the majority of farmers were severely exposed (0.822) and sensitive (0.894) to climate change with lower adaptive capacity (0.576) between the year 2013-2017. It shows that, 0.186, 0.226, 0.224, 0.220 and 0.241 was the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) of Arsikere, Kadur, Tiptur, Chiknayakanahalli and Challakere taluk, respectively. The overall CVI value of all taluks was 0.218. As per the result, all taluks were severely vulnerable to climate change.