Participatory Evaluation of Effectiveness of Farmer-Led Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change in Eastern Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

India has shown high vulnerability towards the impact of climate change due to thedependency of 58 per cent of India’s population on agriculture. The study was carried on180 respondents in three districts selected randomly of eastern Uttar Pradesh to evaluatefarmer-led adaptation strategies to the impact of climate change, activities that arepredominantly led by farmers to make them more adaptable to long-term changes in weatherpatterns. All the respondents had experienced extreme climatic events in the last 5-10 years,making the region climate-prone. Nine farmers’-led adaptation strategies to climate changefollowed in crop farming were documented and quantified by using Climate ChangeAdaptation Index. Adaptation strategies were evaluated using the Quantification ofIndigenous Knowledge method (QuIK) method; by involving the key informants followedby peer farmers. Crop diversification, use of high yielding varieties of crops andpreparations of bunds to control water flow were the most preferred adaptation strategiesto climate change. The irregular rainfall increased the incidence of floods in eastern UttarPradesh; thus, the preparation of bunds to regulate water flow in crop fields was the mostefficient adaptation strategy.