Farmers’ awareness level and their perceptions of climate change: A case of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan

Abstract

Climate change is an environmental threat to all the sectors, especially the agricultural sector around the globe. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable regions to extreme climatic events in developing world especially in Southeast Asia. Pakistan has detrimentally affected by the climatic variations due to its high exposure to extreme climatic events. Several studies have reported the farm households’ perception, adaptation and mitigation about climate change but there is inadequate knowledge available on the awareness of farm households about climate change in Pakistan. To fill this research gap, the purpose of research aims to examine the Pakistani farm household’s awareness level of climate change and its associated factors. By using structured questionnaire in data of 400 study participants were collected from four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province of Pakistan through a household’s survey. A stratified random sampling technique was utilized for collection of primary data. A probit model approach was employed to analyze the farm households’ awareness of climate change and its associated socioeconomic and demographic variables. Results of our study exposed that 73 % farm households were aware of climate change. Socio economics and demographic variables such as age of farm households, education level, farming experience, land ownership status, extension and information sources access were pointedly related to farm households’ awareness of climate change. Further, results of our study showed that the evaluation of farm households’ adaptation behavior suggests that farm households are active in using several adaptation strategies such as crop diversification and use of irrigation etc. It is expected that the findings of the present research will be helpful to guide governmental agencies and policymakers and contribute to the construction of sustainable adaptation measures in Pakistan and other regions in the framework of climate change.