A STUDY ON FARMERS’ PERCEPTION AND ADAPTABILITY OF THE FARMERS TOWARDS CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN KURNOOL DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
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Date
2016
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Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur
Abstract
The present study entitled “A Study on farmers’ perception and adaptation to climate variability in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh” had been initiated focusing on the perception and adaptability of the farmers to climate variability.
Ex-post facto research design was adopted in the present investigation. Kurnool district of Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh state was purposively selected for the study. The study was conducted in six villages selected from three mandals of Kurnool district, which included 20 farmers from each of the selected villages. A sample of 120 farmers was selected for the study.
The analysis of profile characteristics of the farmers indicates that majority of them are male farmers, illiterate and middle aged, fell under medium category in terms of farming experience, farm size, family size, family income, achievement motivation, mass media exposure, social participation, extension contact, credit and subsidy orientation and preparedness for adaptation.
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Majority of the farmers had medium level of perception and medium level of adaptation of practices to overcome the effects of climate variability in groundnut, red gram and cotton crops.
With regard to the level of perception of the respondents on climate variability, majority of the respondents had high perception on items like early withdrawal of monsoons followed by perception late onset of monsoons and prolonged dry spell and the least ranked perception items are decreased fertilizer use efficiency, increased water stress, reduced soil fertility and perception on reduced water holding capacity.
In case of extent of adaptation measures to face the climate variability in groundnut, majority of the respondents had high adoption of groundnut based intercropping systems, followed by timely sowing of groundnut crop with sati seed drill, deep summer ploughing and adoption of alteration of sowing dates for delayed onset of monsoons and the least ranked adoption items are adoption of installation of pheromone traps (4/acre), construction of rain water harvesting structures viz. farm ponds, method of conserving soil moisture, thinning practice under severe drought to conserve soil moisture.
In red gram, the practices like adoption of intercropping systems in red gram (groundnut+red gram in 7:1 / red gram+seteria in 1:5) deep ploughing once in 2-3 years and adaptation of short duration varieties under delayed onset of monsoons. The least ranked adoption items are installation of pheromone traps (4/acre), construction of rain water harvesting structures viz. farm ponds and resistant varieties for sterility mosaic disease and wilt resistant varieties.
In case of cotton majority of the respondents had high adoption of spraying of growth hormone (NAA/ planofix), deep ploughing once in 3 years, adoption of Bt cotton to mitigate the climate variability and adoption of dead furrows for conserving moisture insitu. The least adoption items are spraying of growth reflectant hormones in cotton, construction of rain water harvesting structures viz. farm ponds, seed treatment and drought mitigating technique.
The correlation analysis indicated that the profile characteristics of the respondents like education, farm size, farming experience, achievement motivation, social participation, mass media exposure and preparedness for adaptation were found positively and significantly related with the level of perception of farmers towards climate variability. Whereas the profile characteristics like education, farming
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experience, achievement motivation, social participation, mass media exposure and preparedness for adaptation were found positively and significantly related with the level of adaptation of farmers towards climate variability.
The regression analysis indicated that the profile characteristics of the respondents like education, farm size, farming experience, achievement motivation and social participation were found positively and significantly contributed to most of the variation in the perception of the farmers towards climate variability. Whereas the profile characteristics of the respondents like farm size, farming experience and preparedness for adaptation were found positively and significantly contributed and age was negatively and significantly contributed to most of the variation in the adaptation of the farmers towards climate variability.
Problems expressed by the farmers were price fluctuations in the market followed by lack of varieties suitable for escaping the terminal drought, high incidence of diseases and no sufficient training on climate variability coping mechanisms.
Suggestions elicited by the farmers were fixing of minimum support price by the government and evolving the varieties which can escape the terminal drought in groundnut, red gram and cotton and resistant to pest and diseases followed by more awareness may be created among the farming community on available of varieties which can tolerant to pest and diseases and training may be given to farmers and extension officials on techniques of crop production and adaptation options to address various issues in climate variability.
Suitable strategy was developed to enhance the adaptability to face the climate variability. The strategy includes the interventions to be taken up by the research system, extension system and government.
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D5358
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