Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of Climate Resilient Agrotechnologies on Rainfed Agroecosystem in Hamirpur District Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT newlineThe severity of climate change is more intense on agricultural sector than the rest and it is most severe on rain-fed agriculture. Now, the urging need is to slow down the rate of change and to make the system tolerable to already occurred changes. An adaptation is a much promising tool to withstand the damages due to climate change. In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the socio-economic impact of agro-technologies based on ex-post facto research design in Nadaun and Bhoranj blocks of Hamirpur district in Himachal Pradesh. On the basis of aims and objectives of the study, research is to be designed to achieve it by primary and secondary data. Therefore, primary data was collected from structural questionnaire which has been framed with the help of expert suggestions and existing literature on this topic. Mostly, questionnaire was framed on Likert-Scale, which has a five point continuum. Secondary data was collected from other agencies. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics (percentage, correlation, standard deviation and mean). For analysis of data, budgeting techniques and cost concepts (fixed cost,variable cost and total cost), economic efficiency measure through benefit-cost ratio (B-C Ratio) and per cent increase in yields were also used. The beneficiary or smart farmers and the non-beneficiary or non-smart farmers were well aware on aspects of climate change but smart farmers had a higher level of awareness on climate resilience which was lacked in non-smart farmers. The different climate resilient agro-technologies under natural resource management (NRM), crop production system (CPS), livestock management (LM) and institutional interventions (II) modules were adopted by smart farmers. Input delivery services of line departments and trainings on climate resilience were proved to be highly useful. Financial and marketing assistance were few missing links of various central and governmental schemes. The study threw some light on policy matters to reproduce climate resilient agriculture to other blocks and to redesign the already implemented interventions in a way which ensures a higher adaptability by managing the constraints. It must have to adopt suitable mechanism for securing a lateral spread of climate resilient agro-technologies to other hilly rain-fed agro-ecosystems also. newlineKeyWords: Agro-ecosystem, Agro-technologies, Climate, Hamirpur, Rain-fed, Resilient, Socio-economic newline newline newline