Abstract
A better understanding of farmers’ perceptions of and responses to climate change is important for decision-makers to design more effective adaptation policies. This study investigates farmers’ perceptions of climate change, actual adaption responses at the farm level, and factors influencing farmers’ decisions on climate change adaptation in Wushen Banner, China. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 220 farmers with a random sampling technique. We found that farmers were generally concerned about climate change. Most farmers have adopted adaption measures to address the adverse effects of climate change. Adjusting farming behavior and using financial means were the main adaptation measures used by local farmers. The results revealed that the implementation of adaptation measures was constrained by the lack of technology, shortage of money, and poor infrastructure. The binary logistic regression results showed that farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics, such as education, farming experience, and gender, had significant impacts on farmers’ decisions to choose adaptation strategies. The regression results also indicated that farmers who believed climate change would affect their health were more willing to choose financial instruments, and farmers who believed climate change would affect their agricultural productions were likely to diversify their livelihoods. The findings provide some critical insights based on local perceptions of climate change and enhance our understanding of cognitive beliefs attached to adaptive responses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abdul-Razak M, Kruse S (2017) The adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to climate change in the northern region of Ghana. Clim Risk Manag 17:104–122
Abid M, Scheffran J, Schneider UA, Ashfaq M (2015) Farmers’ perceptions of and adaptation strategies to climate change and their determinants: the case of Punjab province, Pakistan. Earth Syst Dynam 6:225–243
Abid M, Scheffran J, Schneider UA, Elahi E (2019) Farmer perceptions of climate change, observed trends and adaptation of agriculture in Pakistan. Environ Manag 63:110–123
Adhikari S, Baral H, Nitschke C (2018) Adaptation to climate change in Panchase Mountain Ecological Regions of Nepal. Environments 5:42-60
Ali A, Erenstein O (2017) Assessing farmer use of climate change adaptation practices and impacts on food security and poverty in Pakistan. Clim Risk Manag 16:183–194
Arora G, Feng H, Anderson CJ, Hennessy DA (2020) Evidence of climate change impacts on crop comparative advantage and land use. Agric Econ 51:221–236
Bai SB, Wang J, Lu GN et al (2010) GIS-based logistic regression for landslide susceptibility mapping of the Zhongxian segment in the Three Gorges area, China. Geomorphology 115:23–31
Barnes AP, Islam MM, Toma L (2013) Heterogeneity in climate change risk perception amongst dairy farmers: a latent class clustering analysis. Appl Geogr 41:105–115
Bender R, Grouven U (1998) Using binary logistic regression models for ordinal data with non-proportional odds. J Clin Epidemiol 51:809–816
Bhatta LD, van Oort BEH, Stork NE, Baral H (2015) Ecosystem services and livelihoods in a changing climate: understanding local adaptations in the Upper Koshi, Nepal. Int J Biodivers Sci Ecosyst Serv Manag 11:145–155
Clark WA, Hosking PL (1986) Statistical methods for geographers. Wiley, New York
Deressa TT, Hassan RM, Ringler C (2011) Perception of and adaptation to climate change by farmers in the Nile basin of Ethiopia. J Agric Sci 149:23–31
Eitzinger A, Binder CR, Meyer MA (2018) Risk perception and decision-making: do farmers consider risks from climate change? Clim Chang 151:507–524
Fahad S, Wang J (2018) Farmers’ risk perception, vulnerability, and adaptation to climate change in rural Pakistan. Land Use Policy 79:301–309
Glantz MH, Gomes R, Ramasamy S (2009) Coping with a changing climate:considerations for adaptation and mitigation in agriculture. FAO, Rome
Habtemariam LT, Gandorfer M, Kassa GA, Heissenhuber A (2016) Factors influencing smallholder farmers’ climate change perceptions: a study from farmers in Ethiopia. Environ Manag 58:343–358
Habtemariama LT, Gandorfer M, Kassa GA, Sieber S (2020) Risk experience and smallholder farmers’ climate change adaptation decision. Clim Dev 12:385-393
Hitayezu P, Wale E, Ortmann G (2017) Assessing farmers’ perceptions about climate change: a double-hurdle approach. Clim Risk Manag 17:123–138
Hosmer DW, Lemeshow S (2000) Applied logistic regression, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York
Hou XY, Han Y, Li FY (2012) The perception and adaptation of herdsmen to climate change and climate variability in the desert steppe region of northern China. Rangel J 34:349–357
Hu Q, Pan FF, Pan XB, Zhang D, Li Q, Pan Z, Wei Y (2015) Spatial analysis of climate change in Inner Mongolia during 1961-2012, China. Appl Geogr 60:254–260
IPCC (2014) Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. In: Part a: global and Sectoral aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge
Jin JJ, Wang XM, Gao YW (2015) Gender differences in farmers' responses to climate change adaptation in Yongqiao District, China. Sci Total Environ 538:942–948
Jin J, Wang W, He R, Gong H (2017): Pesticide Use and Risk Perceptions among Small-Scale Farmers in Anqiu County, China. Int J Environ Res. Public Health 14:29-39
Jin J, He R, Gong H, Wang W (2018) Role of risk preferences in explaining the public’s willingness to pay for marine turtle conservation in China. Ocean Coast Manag 160:52–57
Kabir MJ, Alauddin M, Crimp S (2017) Farm-level adaptation to climate change in Western Bangladesh: an analysis of adaptation dynamics, profitability and risks. Land Use Policy 64:212–224
Khan M, Damalas CA (2015) Farmers' willingness to pay for less health risks by pesticide use: a case study from the cotton belt of Punjab, Pakistan. Sci Total Environ 530:297–303
Khanal U, Wilson C (2019) Derivation of a climate change adaptation index and assessing determinants and barriers to adaptation among farming households in Nepal. Environ Sci Pol 101:156–165
Kibue GW, Liu X, Zheng J, zhang X, Pan G, Li L, Han X (2016) Farmers' perceptions of climate variability and factors influencing adaptation: evidence from Anhui and Jiangsu, China. Environ Manag 57:976–986
Kuruppu N, Liverman D (2011) Mental preparation for climate adaptation: the role of cognition and culture in enhancing adaptive capacity of water management in Kiribati. Glob Environ Change-Human Policy Dimens 21:657–669
Lane D, Murdock E, Genskow K et al (2019) Climate change and dairy in New York and Wisconsin: risk perceptions, vulnerability, and adaptation among farmers and advisors. Sustainability 11:3599-3623
Li C, Tang Y, Luo H, di B, Zhang L (2013) Local farmers’ perceptions of climate change and local adaptive strategies: a case study from the middle Yarlung Zangbo River Valley, Tibet, China. Environ Manag 52:894–906
Mase AS, Gramig BM, Prokopy LS (2017) Climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and adaptation behavior among Midwestern U.S. crop farmers. Clim Risk Manag 15:8–17
Mulenga BP, Wineman A, Sitko NJ (2017) Climate trends and farmers’ perceptions of climate change in Zambia. Environ Manag 59:291–306
Nelson GC, Rosegrant MW, Koo J et al (2009) Climate change: impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation, 21. Intl Food Policy Res Inst, Washington
Ochieng J, Kirimi L, Mathenge M (2016) Effects of climate variability and change on agricultural production: the case of small scale farmers in Kenya. NJAS-Wagen J Life Sci 77:71–78
Shi X, Sun L, Chen X et al (2019) Farmers’ perceived efficacy of adaptive behaviors to climate change in the Loess Plateau, China. Sci Total Environ 697:134217-134226
Song CX, Liu RF, Oxley L et al (2019) Do farmers care about climate change? Evidence from five major grain producing areas of China. J Integr Agric 18:1402–1414
Tripathi A, Mishra AK (2017) Knowledge and passive adaptation to climate change: an example from Indian farmers. Clim Risk Manag 16:195–207
Wang YJ, Chen XH (2015) Understanding farmers’ perceptions and risk responses to climate change in China. Front Eng Manag 2:201–210
Wang W, Jin J, He R et al (2018) Farmers’ willingness to pay for health risk reductions of pesticide use in China: a contingent valuation study. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15:625-635
Whitmarsh L (2011) Scepticism and uncertainty about climate change: dimensions, determinants and change over time. Glob Environ Change-Human Policy Dimens 21:690–700
Woods BA, Nielsen HO, Pedersen AB, Kristofersson D (2017) Farmers' perceptions of climate change and their likely responses in Danish agriculture. Land Use Policy 65:109–120
Zhai SY, Song GX, Qin YC et al (2018) Climate change and Chinese farmers: perceptions and determinants of adaptive strategies. J Integr Agric 17:949–963
Zhong Z, Hu Y, Jiang L (2019) Impact of climate change on agricultural total factor productivity based on spatial panel data model: evidence from China. Sustainability 11:1516-1533
Zhu GF, Qin DH, Ren JW et al (2018) Assessment of perception and adaptation to climate-related glacier changes in the arid Rivers Basin in northwestern China. Theor Appl Climatol 133:243–252
Funding
We would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41671170, 41771192) for providing financial support to undertake this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Baojing Gu
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
Appendix The survey questionnaire can be found in the supplementary material related to this article in the online version.
ESM 1
(DOCX 26 kb).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, C., Jin, J., Kuang, F. et al. Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and adaptation behavior in Wushen Banner, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 26484–26494 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09048-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09048-w