Paddy Cultivating Marginalized Farmers’ Climate Change Perceptions, Impacts and Adaptation Strategies in Chandrapur District, Central India
Main Article Content
Abstract
The study aimed to assess paddy cultivating marginalized farmers’ perceptions of climate change, impacts, and adaptation strategies in Chandrapur district, central India. Purposive sampling was carried out to identify 70 marginalized farmers from the study area in the year 2020. A specially designed and developed questionnaire was used as a tool to elicit the information from the respondent. From the identified sample population, the maximum number of farmers (35.71%) are illiterate and don’t have a cell phone (57.14%). They have borrowed money to carry out agricultural activities from one or other source specifically from moneylenders (84.28%) followed by government banks (37.14%). Climate change perceptions by these farmers are well understood and clear and reported rain pattern change (85.71%) and high/low temperature (74.28%) as an important one. Crop residue burning is considered a major (94.28%) agricultural activity responsible for climate change. Impacts of climate change on agriculture, in general, is in the order of crop growth reduced > production reduction > irrigation water scarcity > soil fertility reduction > poor quality yield > late/no seed germination. Impacts on paddy cultivation, in particular, are increased insect/pest attack, yield quality deterioration, and food production reduced. Quantity of surface water decrease is reported by 87.14% respondent. The cost of insecticide/pesticide used is increased in the range of 21-40% (38.57%). Impacts of climate change on livestock are pronounced and include heatstroke (82.35%), vector-borne diseases (61.76%), production loss (50%), and death due to heatstroke (35.29%). Adaptation strategies are poorly developed with a desire for a better weather forecast (97.14%) and changing cropping patterns (74.28%). Future adaptation strategies involved an emphasis on high-yielding crop varieties, crop diversification, irrigation water use change, water storage methods, etc. The climate change-induced problems faced by these marginalized farmers are well defined and different from other farmer categories and needs a holistic approach to overcome it. Sustainable adaptation strategies emphasize on climate smart agriculture is the need of the hour to pave the way for sustainable agriculture and sustainable livelihood. This may be perhaps the first study with this aim from the region.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Kumar, Krishna. “Impact of climate change on India’s monsoon climate and development of high-resolution climate change scenarios for India”, MoEF, New Delhi, October 2009.
Gujja, Biksham, and T. M., Thiyagarajan. “New hope for Indian food security? The system of rice intensification.” Gate Keeper 143, International Institute for Environment and Development, November 2009.
Bouman, Bas, et al. “Rice: feeding the billions.” In Molden D (ed) Water for food, water for life: a comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture, London, UK: Earthscan; Colombo, Sri Lanka: IWMI., 2007, pp. 515-549.
Kumar, Praduman, et al. “Demand projections for food grains in India.” Agricultural Economics Research Review, vol. 22, no. 2, July 2009, pp. 237-243.
Thaware, B., et al. “Status paper on rice in Maharashtra”. http://www.rkmp.co.in
Lal, Murari, et al. “Vulnerability of rice and wheat yields in NW - India to future changes in climate.” Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, vol. 89, 1998, pp. 101-114, doi:10.1016/S0168-1923(97)00064-6.
Saseendran, S.A., et al. “Effects of Climate Change on Rice Production in the Tropical Humid Climate of Kerala, India.” Climatic Change, vol. 44, 2000, pp. 495-514, doi:https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005542414134.
Sinha, S. K., and M. S., Swaminathan. “Deforestation, climate change and sustainable nutrition security.” Climatic Change, 19, 1991, pp. 201-209.
Matsui, Tsutomu, and Kenji, Omasa. “Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars Tolerant to High Temperature at Flowering: Anther Characteristics.” Annals of Botany, vol. 89, no. 6, June 2002, pp. 683-687, doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcf112.
Barnwal, Prabhat, and Koji, Kotani. "Climatic impacts across agricultural crop yield distributions: An application of quantile regression on rice crops in Andhra Pradesh, India." Ecological Economics, vol. 87, no. C, 2013, pp. 95-109.
Cline, William. “Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country.” Peterson Institute for International Economics. no. 4037, January 2007.
Aggarwal, P. “Global climate change and Indian agriculture: impacts, adaptation and mitigation.” Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 78, 2008, pp. 911-919.
Mani, Muthukumara, et al. “South Asia’s Hotspots: The Impact of Temperature and Precipitation Changes on Living Standards.” June 2018, pp. 125, doi:10.1596/978-1-4648-1155-5.
Satapathy, Ranjan Deepty, et al. Spatial distribution of metals in ground/surface waters in the Chandrapur district (Central India) and their plausible sources. Environmental Geology, vol. 56, no. 7, 2009, pp. 1323-1352.
Chandrapur district: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chandrapur-district-with-administrative-blocks-41_fig1_342863121 (25th June 2021)
Census of India, 2011. Chandrapur district profile. Directorate of Census Operation, Maharashtra. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Mumbai. 2011. pp. 1-43.
Census of India, 2001. Chandrapur district profile. Directorate of Census Operation, Maharashtra. Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, Mumbai. 2001. pp. 1-96.
Mertz, Ole, et al., “Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and agricultural adaptation strategies in rural Sahel.” Environmental Management, vol. 43, no. 5, 2009, pp. 804-816, doi:10.1007/s00267-008-9197-0.
Banerjee, Rupsha. "Farmers’ perception of climate change, impact and adaptation strategies: a case study of four villages in the semi-arid regions of India.” Natural Hazards, vol. 75, no. 3, February 2015, pp. 2829-2845.
Panda, Chandan. “Marginal and Small farmers’ Climate Change Perception and Adaptation.” International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology, vol. 9, no. 5, November 2016, pp. 839-846, doi:10.5958/2230-732X.2016.00108.X.
Putriawanti, and K., Asai, “Questionnaire survey farming adaptation for climate variability in Serang municipality, Indonesia”, Memoirs of the Faculty of Engineering, Yamaguchi University, vol. 67, 2016, pp. 99-106.
Rahman, Md. Habibur, and Khurshed, Alam. “Forest dependent indigenous communities’ perception and adaptation to climate change through local knowledge in the protected area- a Bangladesh case study.” Climate, vol. 4, no. 1, February 2016, pp. 12.
Somboonsuke, Buncha, et al. Farmers' perceptions of impacts of climate variability on agriculture and adaptation strategies in Songkhla Lake basin. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 39, no. 2, May 2018, pp. 277-283, doi. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2018.05.006
Makuvaro, V., et al. “Smallholder farmer perceived effects of climate change on agricultural productivity and adaptation strategies.” Journal of Arid Environments, vol. 152, 2018, pp. 75-82.
Jamshidi, Omid, et al. “Vulnerability to climate change of smallholder farmers in the Hamadan province, Iran.” Climate Risk Management, vol. 23, 2019, pp. 146-159.
Azhoni, Adani, and Manish Kumar, Goyal. “Diagnosing climate change impacts and identifying adaptation strategies by involving key stakeholder organisations and farmers in Sikkim, India: Challenges and opportunities.” The Science of the Total Environment, vol. 626, 2018, pp. 468-477, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.112.
Banerjee, Rupsha. "Farmers’ perception of climate change, impact and adaptation strategies: a case study of four villages in the semi-arid regions of India.” Natural Hazards, vol. 75, no. 3, February 2015, pp. 2829-2845.
Jamshidi, Omid, et al. “Vulnerability to climate change of smallholder farmers in the Hamadan province, Iran.” Climate Risk Management, vol. 23, 2019, pp. 146-159.
Watanabe, Tsugihiro, and Takashi, Kume. “A general adaptation strategy for climate change impacts on paddy cultivation: special reference to the Japanese context.” Paddy and Water Environment, vol. 7, December 2009, pp. 313-320.
Rahman, Md. Habibur, and Khurshed, Alam. “Forest dependent indigenous communities’ perception and adaptation to climate change through local knowledge in the protected area- a Bangladesh case study.” Climate, vol. 4, no. 1, February 2016, pp. 12.
Banerjee, Rupsha. "Farmers’ perception of climate change, impact and adaptation strategies: a case study of four villages in the semi-arid regions of India.” Natural Hazards, vol. 75, no. 3, February 2015, pp. 2829-2845.
Ibid.
Harvey, Celia A, et al. “Extreme vulnerability of smallholder farmers to agricultural risks and climate change in Madagascar.” Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, vol. 369, no. 1639, Feb. 2014, doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0089.
Panda, Chandan. “Marginal and Small farmers’ Climate Change Perception and Adaptation.” International Journal of Agriculture, Environment and Biotechnology, vol. 9, no. 5, November 2016, pp. 839-846, doi:10.5958/2230-732X.2016.00108.X.
Akinnagbe, Oluwole, and Ifeoma, Ironhide. “Agricultural Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change Impacts in Africa: A Review.” Bangladesh Journal of Agricultural Research, vol. 39, no. 3, Feb. 2015, pp. 407-18, doi:10.3329/bjar.v39i3.21984.
Aniah, Philip, et al. “Smallholder farmers' livelihood adaptation to climate variability and ecological changes in the savanna agro-ecological zone of Ghana.” Heliyon, vol. 5, no. 4, 2019, e01492.