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Farmers’ understanding of climate change in Nepal Himalayas: important determinants and implications for developing adaptation strategies
- Source :
- Climatic Change. 158:485-502
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Climate change affects the livelihood of farmers in a variety of ways. Farmers’ indigenous knowledge influences their perception of climate-related issues. A perception-based, semi-structured questionnaire survey of 530 households was performed to gather information about the awareness of, indicators for, and determinants of climate change. The survey covered three ecological regions of Nepal. The statistical analysis was done with a chi-square (χ2) test and a binary logistic regression (BLR) model to screen farmers’ perception of climate change. This study shows that socio-economic and agricultural characteristics of the farmers directly influence their perception of climate change. Farmers have identified climate change indicators in various forms, e.g., an increase in temperature (99.2% of those surveyed), a decrease in precipitation (98.9%), and an increase in climate-induced diseases and pests (96.8%) for agricultural crops. Observed precipitation (− 16.093 mm/year; p = 0.055) and temperature (0.0539 °C/year; p = 0.007) between 2000 and 2015 are both consistent with farmers’ perception. The selected independent variables are significantly correlated with the dependent variables, as confirmed by the BLR model, where χ2 = 83 with p = 0.002. The BLR shows there is a strong relationship between farmers’ perception of climate change and the group of descriptive variables, with a coefficient of determination of 85%. The biophysical characteristics and impact variables were the most important determinants. It is important that organizations and policymakers in Nepal develop adaptation strategies that improve the livelihoods of farmers. These strategies include introducing drought-tolerant crops, developing disease- and pest-tolerant seeds, constructing irrigation systems, and building hospitals.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric Science
Global and Planetary Change
Variables
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
business.industry
media_common.quotation_subject
0208 environmental biotechnology
Climate change
Questionnaire
02 engineering and technology
Livelihood
Logistic regression
01 natural sciences
020801 environmental engineering
Geography
Agriculture
Perception
Traditional knowledge
Socioeconomics
business
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15731480 and 01650009
- Volume :
- 158
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Climatic Change
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........58c7c728b71b68df01132d0da524cb17