Perception of Farmers about Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture in Uttarakhand, India

Abstract

The development process is being threatened by climate change, which is also negatively affecting the Indian economy in a number of areas, most notably the agriculture sector. Planting, transplanting, weeding, thinning, harvesting, processing, selling, winnowing, storing, kitchen gardening, and other methods are some of the crop production techniques that farmers use. Unpredictable, and chaotic climate change is threatening agricultural productivity and the stability of rural communities' livelihoods. Farmers that are aware of these disruptive variables may be able to lessen the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture. This study aimed to evaluate farmers' perceptions regarding the impacts of climate change on agriculture within the Almora district of Uttarakhand, India. The study was carried out in the Almora district of Uttarakhand state. Purposive sampling technique and Random sampling was used to select the study area and samples. Total sample size was 120. Data on perception of farmers about impact of climate change reveals that 63 percent of respondents reported a decrease in overall food production. Results on change in availability of water for irrigation revealed that there was no change as reported by 43.33 percent of respondents in Almora district. Availability of drinking water decreased in Almora (54 %). The frequency of forest fire was reported to be increased as reported by respondents (65 %). When we talk about crop diversity and climate change, it was found that crop diversity decreases as reported by majority of respondents (82%) in Almora showing that crop rotation and other practices were not followed properly. The wild animal attack to the crop was increased in present time and causes serious damage to the crop. To effectively address these difficulties, policy measures and guidelines can be designed with more insight if location-specific farmers' perceptions and adaptive behaviors are understood.