Climate Risk Adaptation Strategies of Farmers with Special Reference to Goat Farming

Climate change poses threat to livestock farming activities in India. Among various livestock species, goats are considered a future animal that can cope with climate challenges. For the study, 276 livestock farm families distributed in 23 districts of Tamil Nadu state, India were surveyed and collected information was analysed. In the high climate risk areas, nearly half (49.0%) of the respondents did not follow any diversification of livestock and 40.6% had diversified their farming with two livestock species and only less (10.4%) had three livestock species. Goat farming was carried out by 44.8% of farmers in high, 58.3% in medium and 54.6% in low-level climate-risk areas. The results revealed that the level of climate risk did not have any significant (P<0.05) association with livestock diversification, herd size and choice of goat farming as an occupation. There was no association between the level of risk and contact intensity with extension agencies among goat farmers. It was inferred that diversification of livestock did not have any association with the level of climate risk and goat farming.