Agricultural Drivers of Climate Change: Adaptation Mitigation Strategies

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17846533

Abstract

Climate change has become an uphill task towards agricultural sustainability especially in developing countries where farmers are dependent on climate sensitive resources. This paper evaluates agricultural causes of climate change and looks at the factors that affect adaptation and mitigation methods used by farmers in the Muzaffargarh district, which is a big agricultural center in South Punjab in Pakistan. The district was selected purposely because of its variety of cropping systems and continuous interventions of governmental and non-governmental organizations that advance the idea of climate-resilient agriculture. Simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 120 farmers and data collected in form of a structured questionnaire by conducting face-to-face interview. Moderate climate change knowledge (M = 3.26), adaptation (M = 2.88), and mitigation practices (M = 2.67) were found, and the perceived climate change impact levels were relatively high (M = 3.43). The correlation analysis revealed a positive relationship between the knowledge and adaptation and mitigation behaviors, which is a good indication of the significance of awareness in determining climate-responsive actions. Regression analysis has shown that knowledge was the best predictor of adaptation (b = 0.36, p < .001) and mitigation (b = 0.31, p < .001). Perceived impact had a strong effect on adaptation (b = 0.21, p =.002) but not mitigation, which indicates that farmers adopt short-term coping mechanisms over long-term emission reduction. Ownership of livestock was found to have a marginal positive impact on adaptation and significant negative impact on mitigation indicating the complexity of livestock-related climate interactions. The size of farms did not make a significant difference so that behavioral responses within the groups of different landholdings were similar. Unreasonable fertilizers application was found to be negatively correlated to mitigation (p =.010), which underscores the unsustainable use of nutrients as a principal cause of agricultural emissions. In general, the results underline the primary position to consider farmer knowledge, perception of risk, and resource management in the formation of climate change adaptation and mitigation behavior. The paper highlights the necessity of reinforced extension services, specialized climate-smart agricultural training, and reinforced assistance to livestock-based farmers in order to develop sustainable agricultural systems that can decrease the effects of climate and increase the resilience.