Study on Awareness of Farmers towards Climate Change of Bundelkhand Region of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

Farming communities in India have still not been able to align with mainstream development process and therefore, the threat of climate change vulnerability looms larger on them. But planned adaptation, right kind of technologies and policies for farming areas and communities, is highly essential to increase the resilience of agricultural production to climate change. The study was conducted in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. This study was adopted both purposive and random sampling methods. Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh comprises seven districts viz; Banda, Chitrakoot, Jalaun, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Hamirpur and Mahoba, so all districts were selected and one block from each district was selected at random. Total 14 villages were selected randomly and 375 respondents were selected for study in household basis.  The majority of the respondents (63.47%) are in middle age group, (23.43%) were found to have graduation and above education. The Majority (52.80%) of the respondents had a medium family size, belonged to a nuclear family. The majority (57.03%) of respondents possessed medium farming experience, with 33.89 per cent having possessed marginal land holding (below 1 ha.), while 33.33 per cent of respondents were engaged in farming as sole profession and highest ownership is reported for cows (local/cross breed). A majority (61.86%) of the respondents had a medium level of extension contact and a medium level of mass media exposure. An analysis of the socio-economic status will help in improving the effectiveness of transfer of technology activities, further resulting in accelerated adoption of new agricultural technologies.