Do farmers perceive climate change clearly? An analysis of meteorological data and farmers’ perceptions in the sub-Himalayan West Bengal, India

Abstract

AbstractFarmers must clearly perceive climate change to implement autonomous adaptations and support planned adaptation and mitigation initiatives. Based on the primary data collected from 300 farming households of the sub-Himalayan West Bengal of India, the present study compared farmers’ perceptions with meteorological trends obtained through a combination of statistical and graphical tests. Many farmers declared a change in local climate, and farmers’ perceptions mostly cognate the increasing summer temperature and decreasing monsoon precipitation from 1991 to 2020. However, a greater level of imperfect perceptions was observed for the winter temperature rise. Overall, only 23% of farmers were able to clearly perceive all the changes in climatic conditions. A binary logistic regression model was employed to identify the determining factors of farmers’ clear perceptions, and results showed that farmers who are younger, male, read newspapers, and experienced elephant crop-raiding perceived the changes more accurately. Whereas access to television and irrigation facilities decreased the probability of perceiving climate change accurately. The study recommends that bridging the knowledge gap between farmers and stakeholders is necessary for this region, which could be achieved by disseminating accurate weather information in combination with agricultural advice and targeted initiatives, especially for the older and female farmers.