Knowledge and adaptation pattern regarding climate change by rural women in Haryana
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Date
2023-06
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CCSHAU, Hisar
Abstract
India is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and significant measures are needed
to build their knowledge level with the adaptation climate resilience. Women play a core role in agriculture and contribute to sustainable development. They are caretakers to the land as well as for their families. They play a critical role in sustaining not only their homes but also the entire food system and this is especially true in developing nations. A study on “Knowledge and adaptation pattern regarding climate change by rural women in Haryana” was conducted in Hisar district with a sample size of 120 rural women from four villages (30 from each village), two villages from Hisar-I and two villages from Hisar-II were selected randomly. The objectives of the present study were to assess the knowledge, adaptation pattern and problems faced by rural women regarding climate change. The data was collected regarding dependent and independent variables with the help of developed interview schedule and a set of 19 independent variables and 3 dependent variables were selected for the study. The collected data were analyzed with suitable statistical tools and techniques such as frequency, percentage and weighted mean score to reveal major findings. The findings revealed that most of the rural women were in the age group of 30-42 years were married had secondary/senior secondary level of education and belonged to nuclear family lived in rural areas. Majority had engaged in the occupation of farming with having marginal land holding with fully irrigated land. Majority of the rural women were growing wheat followed by cotton with farming experience of 11-15 years by using canal as their source of irrigation. Majority followed multiple cropping pattern followed by mono-cropping pattern. Some of the rural women were found to have participation in voluntary work. Books as a print media were mostly used, while television was the most used electronic mass media. The data represents that the rural women had medium knowledge regarding climate change followed by high and low level. The most adopted practices followed by rural women for crop production was contingent crop plan followed by use of ridges and furrows for energy and water resources, whereas for animal husbandry they mostly adopted the shifting shed location of the livestock and the rural women had alternative of worked at lower wages to generate income after any natural calamities. The constraint which the rural women always faced in adaptation was the lack of knowledge regarding appropriate adaption strategies. The rural women agreed for the personal problem of increase in socio-economic stress, while increase in drudgery was the household problem and the food related problem was raising high prices of food products day by day. The situational problem faced by the rural women was that they were highly dependent on monsoon. It is vital to take action to develop some programmes to raise knowledge of the effects of climate change on agriculture and its allied activities, as well as to develop mitigation techniques.