Knowledge of Farmers on Climate Change: A Study among Farm Families of Jorhat District, Assam, India

Abstract

The environment and the societies are under a great deal of stress due to climate change, which is one of the biggest problems of the present time. The present study aims to assess the level of farmers' understanding on climate change. The study was conducted in Jorhat district of Assam state, India. In this study a multistage sampling procedure was followed. Thirty per-cent development blocks of Jorhat district were selected purposively which included two blocks. Seventy five respondents were selected from each block by using equal allocation sampling technique and thus sample size was 150. Data were collected through Interview Schedule and a knowledge test and analysed using appropriate statistical tests i.e., frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, category interval, t-test and correlation coefficient. The study reveals that highest percentage (43.33%) respondents were in the age group of 41 to 51 years and were high school passed (52.00%). Regarding land holding, 54.67 per cent had 1-5 acres of land while 80.00 per cent had farming as primary occupation. Majority of the respondents had medium level of knowledge (72.67%) on climate change followed by 14.66 per cent with high and 12.67 per cent with low level of knowledge on climate change. The data revealed that respondents had greater understanding of the indicators, causes and effects of climate change compared to their knowledge on mitigation and adaptation strategies. In order to empower farmers for taking a proactive role in addressing climate change, it is essential to enhance farmers' knowledge on climate change, its causes, affects, management and adaptive capacity. Various stakeholders may come together for generating awareness among farmers regarding climate change and its management and may advocate for policy frameworks.