Determinants of farmers’ perception about climate change in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan

Abstract

Climate change is a global environmental threat to almost all economic sectors, especially the agricultural sector and Pakistan is no exception to these threats. In Pakistan, farmers are the primary stakeholders in agriculture and are more at risk due to climatic vulnerability. This study, therefore examined farmers’ perception about climate change across four agro-climatic zones of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan. A total of 210 farmers were selected through multistage random sampling technique and interviewed by using a well-designed interview schedule. The study results revealed that maize and wheat were the two main crops cultivated by 99.05% and 97.14% respondents, respectively. Among the total targeted respondents, 89.52% respondents reported an increase in temperature, whereas 79.05% observed decrease in rainfall in the province. The logistic regression analysis was carried out to assess factors influencing farmers’ perceptions of climate change. The analysis revealed that 89.52%of farmers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had a perception that climate was changing. In this respect, age, educations, household size, farming experience and farm income were recorded having statistically significant effect on the probability of the respondents to perceive climate change. It is concluded that mean temperature was increased, while a significant decrease was noted in annual precipitation. Based on the study findings, it is recommended that policy makers should devise policies helping the farmers in coping with changing climate to avoid adverse effects of climatic pattern on overall crop yield. Agricultural extension and meteorological department should work together to forecast weather conditions and transfer the required information and mitigation strategies to the target farming community. Keywords: Climate change; Logit regression; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-Pakistan; Perception http://dx.doi.org/10.19045/bspab.2019.80161