Climate Change Adaptation in Indian Agriculture- Assessing Farmers’ Perception and Adaptive Choices

Abstract

The impacts of climate change are expected to be the most devastating market failure in modern times. India’s vulnerability to climate change is apparent with the frequent occurrence of flood, drought and cyclones in the recent past. Agriculture being one of the primary sources of livelihood of the country and the most climate centric activity, climate change is likely to significantly affect the key outcomes of agriculture systems and economic development. The most practical way to manage the undesirable climatic consequences is adaptation. Therefore, farm-level analysis of adaptive endeavors is prime requisite to understand the dynamics of adaptation to climate change. This paper, tries to identify the major parameters which determine Indian farmers’ awareness and expectation of climate change and the factors affecting their adaptive choices. The study also attempts to assess the key adaptive strategies which farmers intend to adapt depending upon agro-climatic conditions and constrained by their socio-economic situations. The observations of this paper will help in identification of micro-level barriers to adaptation and will facilitate appropriate policy formulation to ensure maximum returns out of the changing climatic conditions.