Climate variability and mitigation: perceptions and strategies adopted by traditional coffee growers in India

Abstract

The study explores coffee growers’ perceptions of climate variability and their coping and adaptive strategies to a changing environment. The results are based on a survey conducted with 56 spatially distributed coffee growers from across the traditionally coffee-growing Kodagu district of Karnataka located in the Western Ghats of India. In general, the growers perceived an increase in temperature, delay in onset of monsoon and an erratic pattern in the distribution of rainfall. These qualitative perceptions were substantiated with the long-term weather data of the district. Growers’ adaptive strategies for climate variability are composed of mainly agronomic management interventions and crop diversification. Besides, off-farm income diversification is adopted by a few coffee growers. The estimates of an ordered probit model indicated that coffee growers’ age, size of land holding, decrease in yield, delay in monsoon, increase in temperature and unpredictability of seasons exert a positive influence on climate-risk ranking, whereas acreage under coffee and crop diversification inversely influenced the ranking of climate risk. The understanding of these perceptions helps shape synergistic strategies for adaptation and undertake long-term mitigation measures to reduce the vulnerability of the coffee sector, especially, the livelihood security of small coffee growers in India.