Assessment of impact vulnerability and farm households adaptation to climate change a study of Telangana

Abstract

newline Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges facing the newlinehumanity with implications for several sectors, particularly agriculture in developing countries newlinelike India. In this background, the present study has examined the impact of climate factors on newlinemajor crop yields in Telangana. This study also analysed the farm households vulnerability and newlineadaptations to climate change. Specific objectives of the study are: (i) to analyse the trends of newlinerainfall and temperature both at the aggregate and district levels in Telangana, (ii) to evaluate the newlineeffects of climatic factors on major crop yields and their yield variability, (iii) to assess the farm newlinehouseholds vulnerability to changing climate in both irrigated and rainfed ecosystems and (iv) newlineto examine adaptation strategies of the sample farmers and determinants of adaptation measures newlinein the study area. newlineThe study utilized both secondary and primary data. Primary data at the household levels newlinewere collected from two sample villages (one in Karimnagar district representing irrigated region newlineand one village in Mahabubnagar district representing the rainfed region) in Telangana using the newlinestructured survey form. Econometrics techniques and cross tabulations were used to analyze the newlinecollected data on the stated objectives. Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen s slope test were used to newlineexplore the trends and patterns in the rainfall and temperature. Further, the Just and Pope newlineproduction function and the three-stage feasible generalised least squares estimation procedure newlinewere applied to evaluate the effects of climatic factors on mean yields and yield variability of newlinemajor crops. To examine the climate-induced vulnerability at the village level, the study adopted newlinean indicator-based method and generated a climate vulnerability index , based on which the newlineextent of climate-change vulnerability of sample villages was indexed. This study found that newlinechanges in rainfall and temperature have significant impact on the mean yield and yield newlinevariability