Climate change impacts, adaptation and policy preferences: a snapshot of farmers’ perceptions in India

The study has brought out clearly that farmers perceive that climate is changing in terms of onset and withdrawal of monsoon, changes in the distribution of rainfall and rising temperatures. Such a perception of farmers on one hand indicates what the adaptation interventions should aim at and on the other hand farmers will be receptive of policies and programmes that help them deal with climate change. There is also a noticeable variation in how farmers see climate change, its manifestations, adaptation and coping mechanisms which only underscores the need for regionally differentiated strategy to deal with changing climate. A look at the farmers’ expectations from the government indicates that appropriateness of such practices as better natural resource management, breeding for tolerance against various abiotic stresses will not change dramatically. It is however interesting to note that farmers prefer to have more robust forewarning systems, more coordinated efforts among different agencies and higher investment in research and development, etc.