Socio-Economic Impact of and Adaptation to Extreme Heat and Cold of Farmers in the Food Bowl of Nepal

Abstract

Farmers worldwide have to deal with increasing climate variability and weather extremes. Most of the previous research has focused on impacts on agricultural production, but little is known about the related social and economic impacts on farmers. In this study, we investigated the social and economic impact of extreme weather events (EWE) on farmers in Nepal, and explored how they coped with and adapted to heat waves and cold spells between 2012 and 2017. To address these aims, we conducted a survey of 350 farms randomly selected from the Bardiya and Banke districts of the Terai lowlands of Nepal. They were specifically asked to rate the impacts of extreme temperatures, as well as their effect on labour productivity and collective farmer health, and the detailed preventative measures they had implemented. About 84% of the farmers self-reported moderate or severe heat stress during the last five years, and about 85%, moderate or severe cold stress. Likewise, the majority of respondents reported that both farmer health and labour productivity had been compromised by EWEs. Productivity loss had a strong association with the perceived levels of heat and cold stress, which, in turn, were more likely to be reported by farmers with previous EWE experience. Potentially due to the increased care required during EWEs, those farmers with livestock reported increased heat and cold stress, as, surprisingly, did those who had implemented adaptation measures. Farmers seemed to be less prepared for potential threats of cold spells than heat waves, and therefore less likely to adopt coping strategies, since these are a recent phenomenon. This study identified some limitations. The cross sectional and self-reported data, as a common source of information to estimate health impact, level of heat/cold stress and labour productivity loss. Community-based education/community engagement programs could be developed to facilitate proactive adaptation.

Impacts of Climate Change and Heat Stress on Farmworkers' Health: A Scoping Review

“…Other commonly used preventive measures include acclimatization ( 52 , 116 ), HRI training ( 63 , 116 , 117 ), wearing sunglasses and sunscreen ( 55 , 63 ), and the use of rest stations or fans ( 56 , 116 ). Preventative measures that were less common among the reviewed studies included eating a traditional diet ( 119 ) and bathing in cold water ( 53 , 116 ).…”

Heat-related productivity loss: benefits derived by working in the shade or work-time shifting

“…Studies that have tried to quantify the heat effect on workers' productivity and to estimate the economic impact are still very few (Roson and Van der Mensbrugghe, 2012;Chinnadurai et al, 2016;Kjellstrom, 2016;Takakura et al, 2017;Budhathoki and Zander, 2019;Vanos et al, 2019). However, the exposure to heat stress is expected to increase significantly in the next years because of climate change (Mora et al, 2017) also in areas where the worker population is not used to fighting this phenomenon (Kjellstrom et al, 2018).…”

“…In a recent study (Day et al, 2019), the authors reported that the heat-related PL is one of the most prominent "market impact" in studies on the economic effects of climate change. However, field studies that have tried to quantify the economic impact of heat stress based on worker's productivity are still very uncommon (Budhathoki and Zander, 2019;Vanos et al, 2019), and there is no agreement among economists on which methods for estimations of these heat impacts would ensure reliability and validity for future projections (Kjellstrom et al, 2019a).…”

Percepção de agricultores de soja e arroz acerca dos riscos ocupacionais

“…Em estudos italiano (Cecchini, Bedini, Mosetti, Marino, & Stasi, 2018), coreano (Park, Park, Kim, & Choi, 2020) e nepalês (Budhathoki & Zander, 2019) verificaram-se como evidências de percepção de riscos ocupacionais físicos em agricultores rurais de soja e arroz, eventos como frio, calor, umidade, ruído, radiações não ionizantes e vibrações. São achados semelhantes ao deste estudo, à medida que identifica e atua na prevenção de danos físicos no trabalho, a fim de evitar doenças ocupacionais, relacionadas principalmente: à síndrome de vibração mão-braço em agricultores que trabalharam ou têm histórico laboral em locais com ferramentas vibratórias, como motosserras; distúrbios cutâneos por radiação solar, como câncer de pele, doença ocular (catarata) e insolação, devido ao trabalho em local quente; perda auditiva induzida por ruído, como som de tratores e máquinas agrícolas em ambientes laborais com ruído contínuo maior de 85 decibéis por mais de três anos; estresse por calor, Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n. 11, e739119543, 2020 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i11.9543 como dores de cabeça, fadiga e desmaios; estresse por frio e umidade, como o aumento na ocorrência de gripe viral, tosse, diarreia, asma e pneumonia.…”