Adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers toward climate change: evidence from Hamadan province in Iran

Abstract

ABSTRACT The global climate is changing, and farmers must increase their adaptive capacity to avoid negative impacts. This study aimed to examine the adaptive capacity of farmers’ household to tolerate climate changes and identify factors affecting the climate in Hamadan province, Iran. The adaptive capacity was evaluated quantitatively by using 23 indicators and was categorized into high, moderate, low, and very low adaptive capacity. The study was based on a cross sectional survey and was conducted with a random sample of 280 household farmers distributed in five counties of Hamadan province in the west of the country whose climatic data revealed signs of climate change. The result showed that farmers’ negative perception toward climate change generally increases during dry seasons and decreases when the precipitation and water resources are more available. Regarding the available information, only 15% of farmers had a high level of adaptive capacity, while 10% of them were highly adapted, and 27.5% showed a very low level of adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity in the current study was influenced by some socio-economic variables including total farm size, irrigated farm size, number of agricultural land plots, and perception and knowledge of climate change.