PhD

The study entitled “Organic farming as a strategy for climate change
adaptation – An exploratory study” was carried out with the objectives to analyze
the integrated adaptive capacity of organic farmers in comparison with
conventional farmers through the development of a measurement tool, namely,
Integrated Adaptive Capacity Index; to create a database of the certified organic
farmers of Kerala and to explore the personal, socio-economic and psychological
characteristics of the farmers and the agro-ecological characteristics of their farms
for formulating a workable climate change adaptation strategy.
The database of certified organic farmers in Kerala was prepared by
collecting the information from the list of accredited certifying agencies in Kerala
and PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) of India. The respondents were selected
from the agro-ecological units having maximum number of certified organic
farmers, namely, AEU9 - South central laterites and AEU11- Northern laterites and
minimum number of certified organic farmers namely, AEU 1- Southern coastal
plain and AEU13- Northern foot hills.
Developing an index for measuring the Integrated Adaptive Capacity
(IAC) of the farmers was one of the major achievements of the study. For that, the
factors contributing to the Integrative Adaptive Capacity were identified as: socio-
economic, technological, agricultural, managerial, bio-physical and ecological.
Each factor of the adaptive capacity index was measured by summing up the
scores of indicators delineated through pilot study, expert opinion and judges’
relevancy rating. The Integrated Adaptive Capacity (IAC) index was calculated as
the composite measure of these six factors.
The comparison of the mean scores of IAC index of organic (81.05) and
conventional farmers (46.35) clearly indicated that there exists a significant
difference between the two groups and the organic farmers were found to be more
adaptive. The IAC index-based analysis revealed that majority (62%) of the
organic farmers are of high adaptive capacity where as majority of the
conventional farmers (56.1%) belonged to moderate adaptive capacity. The AE
Unit wise comparison revealed that the farmers of South central laterites exhibited
the highest IAC index, followed by the farmers of Southern coastal plain,
Northern foothills and Northern laterites. Among the six IAC factors, socio-
economic factor was found to be the most contributing followed by technological,
agricultural, managerial, bio-physical and ecological. All these factors were found
to be positively and significantly correlated with the IAC Index.
The analysis of personal, socio-economic and psychological characteristics
indicated that majority of the farmers of the survey area belonged to middle aged
category, medium level of annual income and possessed an area of 1 to 5 acres of
land. Majority of the farmers were studied up to high school level with high
farming experience and farming commitment. Most of the respondents were
having medium level of mass media exposure, closeness with agricultural support
system and self confidence. Majority of the farmers were found to have a low
level of socio-political participation. The results indicated a positive and
significant correlation between the integrated adaptive capacity index and the
profile characteristics of the farmers except age.
The major constraints as perceived by the farmers were: marketing
problems (72.17%), lack of timely weather forecasts and its access to farmers
(71.5%), risk due to uncertain weather parameters (69.77), inadequate storage and
transportation facilities (64.54%), high cost of inputs (57.85%), inadequate labour
availability (55.18%), inadequate input supply (48.93%), non- availability of
organic inputs (48.55), inadequate institutional support (43.7%), lack of timely
dissemination of appropriate technology (40.77%), lack of need based training
programmes (40.53%), inadequate infrastructural facilities (40.13%) and lack of
farmer participatory research (34.24%).
Based on the study a workable climate change adaptation strategy is
proposed at different levels such as: Farmer, Extension delivery system, Research
and Government. The major strategies at farmer level included: adopting locally-
relevant climate-smart agricultural practices, changing cropping pattern according
to seasonal/ climatic variability/changes, application of organic inputs, insitu-
resource utilization etc. The major strategies at extension delivery system level
included: encourage rain water harvesting and recharging measures, making the
farmer aware about the bio-physical resources of the farm, support livelihood
diversification, promoting crop insurance, etc. The major strategies at research
level included: Identify technologies with mitigation and adaptation synergies,
developing climate resilient varieties, development of technologies to improve
water productivity and water use efficiency, innovative technologies for value
addition of agricultural products, undertaking researches related to climate change
and adaptation/mitigation, etc. The major strategies at government level included:
providing additional access to credit and saving mechanisms, establishing
efficient transporting and marketing facilities avoiding middle men for getting
reasonable income to the farmers, encourage education on how to reduce their
emissions, awareness programmes for reducing GHG emission, carbon
sequestration etc., disaster risk reduction and climate change in schools and
farmer/worker organisations, provide funding for climate adaptation activities and
research, etc.
A comparison of the agro ecological profile of the farmers with highest
IAC index indicated that organic farmers had better adaptation capacity for coping
up with climate change. Thus, from the study it is concluded that, organic farming
can be considered as one of the climate change adaptation strategies, as it
optimally combines different practices in a systematic manner using limited
resources, along with additional benefits of biodiversity and environmental
services, leading to safe food production and sustainable livelihood support.