Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Measures Initiated by Farmers in Aravalli Hill Zone of Rajasthan, India

Aims: To study about the adaptation and mitigation measures initiated by the farmers against climate change in local conditions.

Study Design: Ex-post-facto research design was followed.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication, Bhagwant University, Ajmer during 2019-2022.

Methodology: The study was conducted in Aravalli Hill Zone of Rajasthan to understand adaptation & mitigation measures employed by farmers to the adverse effects of climate change. In the investigation region, 240 farmers were randomly selected.

Results: In the region 95.83 per cent of the farmers pursued that soil and water conservation was the most widely practiced strategy. Whereas, almost three fourths of the respondents were practicing adoption of drought tolerant and early maturing crop varieties were (75%), use of small-scale irrigation (73.75%), enhancing participatory forest management (73.33%) and afforestation/ reforestation (72.91%), while (70. 83%) practiced diversification of small ruminant animals and changing cropping calendar of agricultural activities. In the constants of the maize crop adaptation measures against excess rainfall was 70.83 per cent of delayed sowing dates; this change in sowing date was adopted by the farmers and adaptation measures in maize crop against deficit rainfall observed by the investigator that 69.58 per cent of the farmers found that delayed sowing dates had affected them.

Conclusion: The local people employed different strategies to adapt the adverse effects of climate change, there were constraints that limit the farmer’s adaptation strategies i. e. lack of financial support, lack of climate information and lack of technical skills. Therefore, the local decision makers such as agricultural sector, microfinance sector, and meteorological agency should provide farmers credit access and climate information to reduce shortage of finance and lack of climate information. There is also need of providing training to the farmers on improved agricultural technology and market access to enhance their climate resilience conditions.