Farmers’ Beliefs and Concerns about Climate Change: An Assessment from Southern Saudi Arabia

Abstract

<jats:p>Climate change constitutes a major threat to agricultural production, food security, and natural resource management. Saudi Arabia is particularly susceptible to increasing temperatures and extreme climatic events, such as arid weather and drought. The purpose of this study is to assess farmers’ beliefs and concerns as regards climate change. Extensive interviews were conducted with 164 farmers in the Jazan region. Results revealed that 89.6% of the farmers believed that climate change is due to human activities and 93.3% believed that it is because of natural change. Seventy-five percent of the farmers were concerned about insects and 73% about the prevalence of weeds on their farms. Findings of cluster analysis revealed that farmers who are more likely to believe in climate change are more in agreement with the role of extension services in capacity building. Farmers’ beliefs about climate change were significantly influenced by membership of agricultural cooperatives, access to loans, use of extension services, age, farm size, and level of soil fertility. Access to loans was the only significant factor to explain the differences in farmers’ concerns. These results suggest the need for capacity-building activities targeted at improving farmers’ adaptability to manage climate variability.</jats:p>

Adoption of Sustainable Water Management Practices among Farmers in Saudi Arabia

“…One explanation could be that Saudi agricultural extension services are inactive in providing effective services, particularly in the field of soil and water conservation, or they use inactive extension methods. This conclusion is supported by the findings of several studies conducted in Saudi Arabia [66,[81][82][83][84] that confirm the weak role of extension services in changing the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of farmers regarding the adoption of agricultural innovations. This result is in line with the findings of Gebru et al [85], who argue that access to extension services was not statistically significant in explaining the adoption of water harvesting practices by farmers in a semi-arid region of Ethiopia.…”

Farmers’ perceptions of organic agriculture in southern Saudi Arabia

“…The other crops in the region include sesame, millet, corn, okra, and tomatoes. Fresh water resources include ground water, rains, and flash floods (Alotaibi, Kassem, Nayak, & Muddassir, 2020).…”

Climate Change Concerns of Saudi Arabian Farmers: The Drivers and Their Role in Perceived Capacity Building Needs for Adaptation

“…There are a range of drivers and factors that have a significant bearing on the farmers' concerns for climate change with different dynamics leading to adaptation concerns [36]. The concerns for climate change among people are thought to emanate from the risk attached with extreme events such as, inter alia, droughts, floods, cyclones, heat waves, avalanches [33,34,37]. People form their concern level with their exposure to risk such as the events associated with climate change.…”

“…The region is characterized by fertile loamy soil. Despite the smallest province of Saudi Arabia in terms of geographical area (Jazan Province represents only 0.7% of the total area of the country), it is one of the richest agricultural province and hosts approximately 8% of Saudi Arabia's total farms [37]. The majority of farmers in the region are characterized as being smallholder farmers with farm size averaging between 1-3 ha.…”

“…Groundwater, flash floods and rains are the main sources of irrigation water. In the recent years, drip irrigation has been adopted by farmers using rainwater harvesting techniques [37].…”