Climate Change: Perception and Coping Strategies of farmers in Assam

The present study was conducted to study farmers’ perception regarding climate change and to explore the coping strategies adopted by farmers for overcoming the adverse effect of climate variability. A random sampling design was followed to select 120 respondents from the sample district which included 60 respondents from Karbi-Anglong (KA) and 60 respondents from Jorhat (J) district. The study revealed that majority of the respondents (82.5%) perceived that the number of rainy days had decreased, amount of rainfall had decreased (76.6%), onset of rainfall was late (92.5%), dry spells were of longer duration (63.3%), rainfall pattern was unpredictable (89.2%), distribution of rainfall was un even (80.3%), warm days had increased (82.5%) and cold days had decreased (85%). Further 72.5 per cent of the respondents had experienced the increase in temperature very frequently and 70.8 per cent stated that they did not experienced low temperature during winter while majority of respondents (60.8%) had experienced the scorching sunshine very frequently. The coping strategies followed in the situation of late onset of rainfall were related to varietal adjustment, sowing and planting time adjustment and pest and disease management. In case of excessive rainfall situation only varietal adjustment was found while in dry spell situation various adjustment strategies were followed by farmers related to varietal adjustment and pest and disease management.