TY  - BOOK
AU  - Fathima A
AU  - Archana R Sathyan (Guide)
TI  - Climate change vulnerability assessment of rice farmers of Alappuzha District
U1  - 630.71 
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Vellayani
PB  - Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture
KW  - Agricultural Extension
KW  - Rice
KW  - Climate change vulnerability
N1  - MSc
N2  - 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

ER  -