Response of farmers to climate change in Odisha: An empirical investigation

The paper examines the perception and adaptation behaviour of farmers to climate change (particularly change in temperature and rainfall pattern) in the face of the various socioeconomic and demographic conditions, taking Kendrapara district of Odisha (a state of India) as the study area. The study tries to unravel their perception about climate change and the factors influencing their adaptation behaviour through the use of multinomial logit technique taking a sample of 150 farming households. The results reveal that access to irrigation, ownership of land and land size of the farmers positively influence various adaptations strategies. Education positively influences migration. Other occupations of the farmer are negatively affecting their decision to adapt to climate change. From the estimated results and the group discussions it is revealed that the major barriers for the farmers to adapt to climate change is their poor economic condition and the poor infrastructure facility in the area in terms of unavailability of irrigation water, lack of extension service.