Implications of Farmer's Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Agricultural Sector of Gujarat: Experience from Farm Level Data

Abstract

This study examined the farmer’s perception on climate change and adaptation strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change in the agricultural sector of Gujarat. It used farm level information of 400 farmers who were purposely selected from 8 districts. Thereupon, linear, non-linear and log-linear production function models were used to examine the impact of climate change, farmer’s adaptation strategies and technological change on agricultural production in Gujarat. The descriptive and empirical results specify that adaptation strategies (i.e., change in showing time of crops, mixed cropping pattern, irrigation facilities, application of green and organic fertilizer, hybrid varieties of seeds, dampening of seed before planting, climate tolerate crops, organic farming and technology) have a positive impact on agricultural production. Thus, farmer’s adaptation strategies are useful to mitigate the negative impact of climate change in the agricultural sector. Maximum temperature and minimum temperature, precipitation and rainfall have a negative impact on agricultural production. However, the impact of these factors seemed positive in the agricultural sector when farmers apply aforementioned adaptation strategies in cultivation. Family size, education level of farmers, annual income of farmers, arable land, irrigated area, cost of technology, appropriate technology and financial support from government have a positive contribution to increase agricultural production in Gujarat.

Farmer's Perception on Climatic Factors and Social-economic Characteristics in the Agricultural Sector of Gujarat

“…Climatic factors, geographical location and ecosystem services have a significant contribution to increasing the farmer's choice to cultivate a particular crop [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] . For instance, wheat, mustard and gram crops need minimum temperature during sowing time, and high temperature during harvesting time.…”

“…It is stated earlier that agricultural production and its allied activities are adversely affected due to climate change and ecosystem services. Therefore, the sector needs technological advancement, appropriate technology, climate adaptation strategy (CAS) and institutional support to reduce the vulnerability of crops due to climate change [3,5,6,12,17,18] . Technological advancement and appropriate technology will bring significant changes in this sector to cope with climate change [1,5,6,9] .…”

“…Therefore, the sector needs technological advancement, appropriate technology, climate adaptation strategy (CAS) and institutional support to reduce the vulnerability of crops due to climate change [3,5,6,12,17,18] . Technological advancement and appropriate technology will bring significant changes in this sector to cope with climate change [1,5,6,9] . Adaptation strategy is a practice or action which reduces or mitigates the negative consequences of any event in a production process.…”

“…Institutional support also helps to increase the farmer's understanding to apply different practices to reduce the uncertainty of climate change impacts on crop production [20] . Public policies, adaptation practices and climate action policies support to reduction the negative consequences of climate change in the agricultural sector [4,5,14,19,21] .…”

“…India, therefore, needs to protect ecosystem services by using technological advancement, appropriate technology and CAS in the agriculture sector [5,6,10,16] . The use of new technologies, scientific techniques, climate resilient technologies and appropriate technology will reduce the negative impact of climate change [3,5,[39][40][41] . CAS would be useful to reduce the risk, and increase the economic capacity of farmers to manage the climate change impact on the agricultural sector.…”