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The study, entitled ‘Climate change vulnerability assessment of rice farmers of
Alappuzha district’ was conducted during 2019-21. The objectives of the research were
to develop a Climate change Vulnerability Index (CVIAEU) for selected Agro-ecological
Units (AEUs) of Alappuzha district to compare the dimensions of climate vulnerabilityAdaptive capacity, Sensitivity and Exposure and to assess the farmer’s perception on
change in various climatic parameters and the coping strategies followed by them. The
study was based on the primary data collected through personal interviews using a pretested and well-structured interview schedule. The study was conducted among the rice
farmers of two AEUs of Alappuzha district, namely Kuttanad (AEU 4) and Onattukara
(AEU 3) during May and August 2021. Using multi-stage sampling technique, 39
respondents from Onattukara and 156 respondents from Kuttanad were selected,
totaling 195 respondents, which constituted the sample size of the study.
For the socio-economic profiling of the respondents, the variables selected were
age, gender, means of livelihood, education, family size, farming experience, and
operational holding size. Based on the results obtained, it was found that none of the
farmers belonged to young age (<35 category), and vast majority of the respondents
were male (96.92%). Half of the respondents (50.26%) with agriculture as their primary
occupation. Only 43.80 per cent of the farmers had high school level of education.
Majority of the respondents (64.10%) had a medium-sized family with 4-6 members
and a medium range of farming experience (54.36%). Furthermore, 32.31 per cent of
the farmers belonged to the categories of marginal and 25.13 per cent were small
holders.
For the purpose of climate change vulnerability assessment, a composite index
(CVIAEU) was developed based on the framework of CVIRFT (Sathyan et al., 2018) and
LVI (Hahn et al., 2009). The index is scaled from ‘0 to 1’, i.e., from least vulnerable to
most vulnerable. The CVIAEU was developed based on three dimensions of vulnerability
viz., Adaptive capacity, Sensitivity and Exposure, under which 9 major components and
39 indicators were selected based on literature review, expert opinion and location
context. Of the 39 indicators, 7 were developed for the study specifically for the
location.
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Based on the CVIAEU value obtained, Onattukara AEU (0.504) is more
vulnerable than Kuttanad AEU (0.489). Although vulnerability index values showed
not much difference among AEUs, dimensional values showed substantial differences.
The exposure dimension showed the highest variation among AEUs, with Kuttanad
(0.683) having a relatively higher vulnerability than Onattukara (0.602) in terms of
exposure. Sensitivity dimension stands second in terms of variability across AEUs, with
Onattukara (0.40) showing higher value for the dimension. The adaptive capacity
showed the least variability among the three dimensions, with Onattukara (0.523)
having higher vulnerability in terms of this dimension. Overall, both the AEUs had a
medium level of vulnerability.
Assessment of perception in change of climatic parameters based on perception
index revealed that, majority of the farmers (96%) were found to have a high degree of
perception towards changes in various climatic parameters like temperature increase
and rainfall distribution.
For the purpose of analyzing adaptation strategies followed by the farmers, nine
strategies selected based on a review of literature were analyzed for their frequency of
use by the respondents, and the results indicated ‘crop insurance’ and ‘warning seeking’
strategies as the most commonly used, followed by ‘diversification of income’. Region
specific adaptation strategies followed by the rice farmers were also derived.
Though the farmers were found to be better at perceiving and adapting to
changes in climatic parameters, there were components that needed further attention
which contributed to their vulnerability. Based on the indicator values, the components
viz., livelihood strategies, socio-economic assets, social networks and water under the
purview of adaptive capacity and sensitivity, where interventions can be planned, were
identified. To improve these components, policy level suggestions viz., announcing
schemes for crop and livestock diversification and integrated farming, linking farmer
organizations to cooperative institutions, conduct trainings on flood risk management
and technology adoption, schemes for ensuring water supply and insurance policy
modification to include crop loss due to salt water intrusion were made.