Abstract
PurposeFarmers' adaptation strategies in agricultural production are required to minimise the negative impact of climate change on a nation's food production in developing countries. Based on the panel data of the provincial level in China from 2000 to 2017, this study aims to analyse the changing climate over recent years and farmers' adaptation strategy in terms of cropping in agricultural production.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses Simpson's diversity index (SDI) to measure the degree of crop diversity planted by farmers and evaluate the influence of climate change on farmers' cropping strategy using the fixed-effect model. Further, the authors estimate the impact of farmers' cropping strategy on their economic performances in two aspects including yields and technical efficiency of crops.FindingsThe empirical results show that the overall climate appears a warming trend. Different from farmers in some other countries, Chinese farmers tend to adopt a more specialised cropping strategy which can significantly improve the technical efficiency and yields of crops in agriculture. In addition, as a moderating role, the specialised cropping can help farmers to alleviate the negative impact of climate change on technical efficiency of their crops.Originality/valueFirst, previous studies showed that the changing climate influenced farmers' adaptation strategies, while most studies focussed on multiple adaptation strategies from the farm-level perspective rather than cropping strategy from the nation-level perspective. Second, the present study investigates how the cropping strategy affects the economic performance (in terms of the technical efficiency and crop yields) of agricultural production. Third, the stochastic frontier analysis method is used to estimate the technical efficiency. Fourth, this study explores the moderating effect between farmers' cropping strategy and technical efficiency by introducing an interaction item of SDI and accumulated temperature.
Highlights
Climate change seldom stems from agricultural activities but may severely impact agricultural development in a negative way especially in developing countries
The results indicate that the proportion of agriculture out of gross domestic product (GDP) was positively associated with the degree of crop diversification
China holds the largest population of smallholder farmers and distinct natural resource endowment in different regions
Summary
Climate change seldom stems from agricultural activities but may severely impact agricultural development in a negative way especially in developing countries. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management Vol 14 No 1, 2022 pp. 2.1 Study area The major crops in China include rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, millet, potatoes and soybeans. Rice is the major cereal crop in southern China, mainly located in the southern part of the Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River and the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In 2017 and 2018, the planting area of rice in China was 30.75 million hectares and 30.19 million hectares and the yield was 212.68 million tons and 212.13 million tons, respectively. Spring wheat is mainly distributed in the north of the Great Wall, the west of Minshan Mountain and Daxue mountain. Winter wheat is mainly cultivated in the east of Liupan Mountain and the north of Qinling and Huaihe River. In 2017 and 2018, the planting area of wheat was 24.51 million hectares and 24.27 million hectares and the yield was 134.3
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
