Analysis of Farmers’ Respondents on Awareness and Knowledge of Climate Change in Agriculture in Nagaland State India

Abstract

The impact of climate change can be seen on several crops in various regions and gives considerable insight into the anticipated effects on the food production in the North East India. In India particularly North East is taking on a visible shift due to the impact of climate change. Seasons and rainfall patterns change, rivers run dry and springs water no longer sustains communities whose livelihood depends on the existing water system to provide livestock needs, agriculture and household activities. Unplanned urbanization and economic development, deforestation and unsustainable land use in the mountainous region leads to excess surface water runoff, depletion of topsoil and poor operation and maintenance of water have all contributed to the challenge. An attempt has been made to collect the data from 300 farmers respondents based on Population Proportionate to Size (PPS) technique to assess the awareness and knowledge level about the impact of climate change on agriculture. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents were aware of climate change aspects like ‘terms and meaning of climate change’, ‘increasing temperature year after year’, ‘crop damages’, ‘changes in season pattern’, etc. Regarding the knowledge level of the respondents more than half of the respondents (58.00 percent) had a medium level of knowledge followed by low (24.67 percent) and high (17.33 percent) levels of knowledge about climate change and related issues.