Abstract
The impact of climate change on farmers’ livelihoods has been observed in various forms at the local and regional scales. It is well known that the Himalayas region is affected by climate change, as reflected in the basic knowledge of farmers in the region. A questionnaire-based survey involving a total of 747 households was conducted to gather information on climate change and its impact, where the survey addressed four physiographic regions of the trans-boundary Koshi River Basin (KRB). Moreover, climatic data were used to calculate climatic trends between 1980 and 2018. The Mann–Kendall trend test was performed and the Sen’s slope calculated to analyze the inter-annual climatic trends over time. The survey noted that, for the basin, there was an increase in temperature, climate-induced diseases of crops, an increase in the frequency of pests as well as drought and floods and a decrease in rainfall, all which are strong indicators of climate change. It was perceived that these indicators had adverse impacts on crop production (89.4%), human health (82.5%), livestock (68.7%) and vegetation (52.1%). The observed climatic trends for all the physiographic regions included an increasing temperature trend and a decreasing rainfall trend. The rate of change varied according to each region, hence strongly supporting the farmers’ local knowledge of climate change. The highest increasing trend of temperature noted in the hill region at 0.0975 °C/a (p = 0.0002) and sharpest decreasing trend of rainfall in the mountain region by −10.424 mm/a (p = 0.016) between 1980 and 2018. Formulation of suitable adaptation strategies according to physiographic region can minimize the impact of climate change. New adaptation strategies proposed include the introduction of infrastructure for irrigation systems, the development of crop seeds that are more tolerant to drought, pests and disease tolerance, and the construction of local hospitals for the benefit of farming communities.
Highlights
The climatic trend observations for the mountain region clearly indicated that climate change had impacted the region between 1980 and 2018 and there was a high probability that this had impacted on agriculture and the farmers’ livelihoods
The focus group discussions (FGDs), it was noted that the trends of increasing temperature and decreasing rainfall were the main indicators of climate change in the four physiographic regions of the trans-boundary Koshi River Basin (KRB)
An increasing frequency of drought was perceived as an indicator of climate change mainly for the hill region of the KRB and for the
Summary
It has been widely recognized that for decades, there has been a longterm trend of increasing temperatures [1,2], and the long-term changing status of climatic variables show that the climate is changing [3]. Many studies point to the negative impacts of climate change on peoples’ livelihoods [4], farming sector [5,6], and on the crop-livestock systems [7]. The agricultural system, human settlement, and crop yield production are highly affected by climate change in different parts of the globe [8,9,10]. The study showed that there was an influence of climate change on agriculture and resulted in a reduction
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