Perceived Causes and Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture

The present study was conducted in three villages representing three agro climate zones of Punjab with the objectives to study the perception of farmers about causes and effects of climate change on agriculture and to get suggestions from them to save water resources from depletion. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents on an average were aware about the effects of climate change like increase in temperature and variation in rainfall. Moreover a large majority of the respondents were aware that water table has been depleted as well as number of tubewells has increased. They were somewhat aware that pollution, burning of paddy straw and deforestation were major causes of climate change. Respondents suggested that to solve this problem paddy should be replaced with other crops, minimum support price for other crops should be fixed, cultivation of paddy to be stopped and wastage of water at home should be avoided. It is suggested that delivery of extension services should be made available to farmers to make them aware about various strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change and ultimately for sustainable development.