Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

REFOCUSING THE PERCEIVED CONCEPTION OF FARMERS REGARDING THEIR LIVELIHOOD UNDER THE CHANGED CLIMATE SITUATION

Rema Das, Amita Hanglem1, K. Pradhan and Victor Sarkar

Abstract

In the changing climate scenario there is a need to develop the socio-economic and livelihood patterns through enhancing the productivity of agricultural sector by adopting some mitigation strategies for climate change. In such a research climate this study were conducted to explore the perception of farmers on the impact of climate change. The study was conducted in two villages of Coochbehar district in West Bengal. Multi-stage and random sampling procedures are followed in the present study. Total 80 respondents were randomly selected for the study. The data were collected through personal interview method with the help of structured interview schedule. The data were processed through statistical measures like frequency, percentage, range, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation etc. The results showed that majority of the respondents is belonging to middle aged group and has medium level of education. Most of the respondents are small farmers and primary source of income is agriculture. The study also revealed that area of the study is highly vulnerable to climate change. Most of the farmer’s perception about the consequences of climate change is that temperature, drought changed rapidly but changes in rainfall pattern is moderate. Farmer’s perception regarding impact of climate change on ecosystem shows that climate change has negative impact on soil, water and forest while it has little impact on flora and fauna. The results further showed that input price, price of agricultural commodities, labor availability, occurrence of diseases and pests are mostly affected by climate change. From the findings it is found that mitigation strategies like drought tolerant crop, conservation of water, intercropping, adoption of indigenous technology, migration are perceived as most important by the farmers to cope with ill effects of climate change.