Adaptation and coping mechanisms of farm households for reducing vulnerability to climate change in odisha

Climate change events like cyclone has made highest impact on livelihoods followed by flood, drought and heat wave, respectively. The outlooks for the vulnerable regions are not good unless on-farm contingency plans, both short and long-term, are adopted. Therefore, present study has assessed the adaptation and coping mechanisms of the farm households in Balasore and Khurda districts of Odisha. Farmers from both the districts have shown a strongly positive response towards adaptation of technological innovations to cope up and mitigate the climate change scenario. Adoption of drought mitigating strategies is prominent in Khurda district while drainage and flood mitigation methods are prominent in Balasore district. The adaptation and preparedness to reducing vulnerability are influenced by existing institutional arrangements at local level which include prevalence of seed bank, custom hiring centre, community nursery, weather based agro-advisory, etc in the study areas.