UMESH, K. B.VIJAYALAXMI DUNDAPPA KHED2020-10-072020-10-072019-10-22Th-12513https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810152671This study uses household level panel data to estimate the agriculture sensitivity and farmers vulnerability to climate change in Semi-Arid Tropics of India. The data pertaining to 2009-2014 collected by International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in five states of Southern India viz., Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh from 664 panel farmers was used for the study. Further, farmers were classified into small, medium and large farmers based on operational land holdings. Empirical results showed inverted U shape relationship between farm income, major crops yield and return from livestock with climate variables. The average production of milk and egg showed decreasing annual growth rate of 5.20 per cent and 12.90 per cent, respectively. As temperature and rainfall increases, return/yield initially increases up to a threshold level and then decreases. Across the land classes, the impact was significant in case of small farmers due to less adaption capacity on field as compared to higher end farmers. Significant effects of both agricultural revenue and crop production diversity on dietary diversity were estimated. The results implied that one per cent increase in agricultural revenue and crop diversity resulted in 1.03 per cent and 1.76 per cent increase in dietary diversity, respectively. These results illustrate that increased crop diversity ensure improved dietary diversity than the agricultural income. The medium farmers were more vulnerable to climate variability compared to other farmers due to their high dependent on agriculture. The study emphasizes the development of new seed varieties, adjustments in sowing time, fodder bank, diversification of production and livelihood strategies could helps to overcome the negative effects of livestock.EnglishThesis