Publication

02.10.2015

Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Variability: Farmers’ Responses to a Variable Monsoon

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Social-ecological systems (SES), or systems where ecosystems and humans are inextricably linked, especially agricultural communities, are facing unpredictable
pressures and shocks due to global climate change. To better understand if agricultural communities will be able to respond to future, unpredictable changes in climate, this study examines how farmers are adapting their current cropping patterns based on interannual variability in northwest India. This study makes the assumption that farmers who adapt to current climate variability have higher adaptive capacity and may be better able to respond to future changes in climate than those farmers who are not adapting to current climate variability. With this aim, this study examines agricultural communities in Mehsana district, Gujarat in northwest India. Using both household level surveys and regional remote sensing analyses, this study suggests that farmers are shifting the date of crop planting based on monsoon onset date, even if farmers have access to irrigation. This suggests that farmers are changing their short-term cropping patterns based on climate signals, which may suggest that farmers have some capacity to alter their cropping patterns to match with new climate patterns in the future.

TAGS:

  • adaptation to climate change
  • impacts of climate change on agriculture
  • India