Farmers’ Attitudes towards Weather Forecasts in South India

Agricultural production and food security in many countries and regions are likely to be severely compromised by climate change and climate variability. Attitude in this study means the degree of positive or negative feeling of farmers towards weather forecasts in agriculture and allied fields and was measured by developing a scale in one of the South Indian states i.e., Andhra Pradesh. Likert method of summated ratings procedure was used for constructing attitude scale in the study. The test items comprise both traditional and scientific information regarding weather forecasts. Attitudes towards forecasts are not only a function of what farmers understand, but also of what they believe. Results of the test revealed that majority of the farmers had neutral attitude towards weather forecasting followed very closely by favorable and unfavorable attitude respectively. By summarizing the attitudes of farmers towards weather forecasts provides feedback to the research for developing tools for the decision support systems. Besides, the information provided and opinions expressed by the farmers in this study should prove useful to the proponents of extension meteorology especially in the wake of climate shifts happening the world over.