Abstract
Sugarcane is an important cash crop in Pakistan. Recently, the average per hectare production of sugarcane is low due to climatic variation. Therefore, sugarcane farmers are threatened by this emerging issue that has drastically affected their livelihoods, food security, and sustainability. This study was designed to analyze the perception, comprehension, and adoption of cultural practices in the mitigation of the impact of climate change. For this purpose, district Rahim yar khan was selected purposively from the Province of Punjab as the universe of the study; as one of the highly cultivated areas among all districts of Punjab. From selected districts, two tehsils were randomly selected, namely Sadiqabad and Kanpur. From each selected tehsil, 5 villages were selected using randomized sampling technique. In each selected village, 18 sugarcane farmers were selected randomly thus, making a total of 180 respondents. The data were collected through quantitative methods. A pre-tested and well-structured interview schedule was developed for the collection of information from sugarcane farmers. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups, adopter and non-adopters of mitigation strategies towards climate change. The results revealed that the majority (98.3 % and 75 %) of the growers reported that an increase in temperature and deforestation for the last five years respectively. Moreover, residues burring and deforestation were major causes of climate change followed by an excess of CO2 from agriculture activities and farm operations. The study recommended that the adoption of cultural practices in mitigation of the impact of climate change should be promoted through information sources.
Highlights
Sugarcane production in Punjab is 49.6 Million tons and a total cultivated area of 0.777 million hectares (Chatta et al, 2018)
The rates of the cultural practices adopted by sugarcane growers against climate change in the study area are presented in figure 2
Slower adoption rate might be due to lack of interest of the farmers towards the climate change impact and lack of awareness level by the extension workers to motivate the growers regarding the importance of the adoption of practices to mitigate the impact of climate change
Summary
Sugarcane production in Punjab is 49.6 Million tons and a total cultivated area of 0.777 million hectares (Chatta et al, 2018). Sugarcane is sensitive to climatic parameters such as rainfall, temperature, sunlight, and soil (Trenberth, 2011). Diverse climatic conditions can lead to changes in sea level, rainfall, floods, droughts, abiotic pressures, and especially rising temperature. In Pakistan, the production of sugarcane is adversely affected and is cause of infestation of various diseases and pests. Amid many reasons of rising temperature, one of the main causes is change in human activities and more deforestation, burning fossil fuel and industrialization in the ecosystem (Chohan, 2019; Shakoor et al.2019). Rainfall, floods, salinity, dryness, and frost have proven to be the main causes of the deterioration in sugarcane production in Pakistan (Chohan, 2019). The main objective of the research was to identify the climate change perception, apprehension, and its strategies through adoption of cultural practices as well as perceived attitude of the sugarcane farmers towards climate change in District Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab
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