Understanding Farmers’ Perceptions and Risk Responses to Climate Change in China

Abstract

Agriculture is likely to bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change. The extent to which these impacts are felt depends in large part on the extent of adaptation in response to climate change. The overall aim of this paper is to attempt to identify farmers’ knowledge, perceptions and risk responses towards climate change (or potential change). In order to achieve this goal, several specific objectives are pursued. First, the paper investigates whether or not farmers have perceived the long-term climate change and extreme weather events. Second, the paper describes how farmers respond to climate change and tries to assess the determinants of their adaptation. Based on data collected from a survey among farm households in three provinces in rural China, the findings demonstrate that farmers are aware of climate variability and identify the rising temperature, decreasing precipitation and the increasing frequency of drought. Only about 25% of farmers are willing to adjust their farming structures as a risk reaction. Household size, wealth, farm size, and the number of plots are found to be important factors that influence farmer adaptive capacity. Implications for policymaking on agriculture and adaptation to climate change will be to focus on providing farmers with information about the climate in time and facilitating enhancement of their adaptive capacity.

Keywords

perception / climate change / agriculture / risk reaction / farmers / China

References

[1] Bryan, E., Deressa, T.T., Gbetibouo, G., & Ringler, C. (2009). Adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia and South Africa: options and constraints. Environmental Science & Policy, 12, 413–426

[2] Byg, A., & Salick, J. (2009). Local perspectives on a global phenomenon—Climate change in Eastern Tibetan villages. Global Environmental Change, 19, 156–166

[3] Chen, H., Wang, J., & Huang, J. (2014). Policy support, social capital, and farmers’ adaptation to drought in China. Global Environmental Change, 24, 193–202

[4] Deressa, T., Hassan, R., Ringler, C., Alemu, T., & Yesuf, M.M. (2009). Determinants of farmers’ choice of adaptation methods to climate change in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. Global Environmental Change, 19, 248–255

[5] Deschênes, O., & Greenstone, M. (2007). The economic impacts of climate change: evidence from agricultural output and random fluctuations in weather. American Economic Review, 97, 354–385

[6] Di Falco, S., Veronesi, M., & Yesuf, M. (2011). Does adaptation provide food security? A micro perspective from ethiopia. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 93, 829–846

[7] ECSNCCA (Edition Committee of the Second National Climate Change Assessment). (2011). Second national climate change assessment report. Beijing: Science Press

[8] FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). (2007). Adaptation to climate change in agriculture, forestry and fisheries: perspective, framework and priorities. Rome: Report of the FAO Interdepartmental Working Group on Climate Change

[9] Frank, E., Eakin, H., & López-Carr, D. (2011). Social identity, perception and motivation in adaptation to climate risk in the coffee sector of Chiapas, Mexico. Global Environmental Change, 21, 66–76

[10] Gbetibouo, G.A. (2009). Understanding farmers’ perceptions and adaptations to climate change and variability: the case of the Limpopo Basin, South Africa. Washington D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute

[11] Holst, R., Yu, X., & Grun, C. (2013). Climate change, risk and grain yields in China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 12, 1279–1291

[12] Huang, J., Wang, Y., & Wang, J. (2015). Farmer’s adaptation to extreme weather events through farm management and its impacts on the mean and risk of rice yield in China. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 97, 602–617

[13] IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). (2014a). Climate change 2013-The physical science basis: working group I to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press

[14] IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). (2014b). Climate change 2014-Impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability: working group II to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press

[15] Maddison, D. (2007). The perception of an adaptation to climate change in Africa (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, Number 4308). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank

[16] Mendelsohn, R., & Dinar, A. (2009). Climate change and agriculture: an economic analysis of global impacts, adaptation, and distributional effects. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing

[17] Mendelsohn, R., Nordhaus, W., & Shaw, D. (1994). The impact of global warming on agriculture: a ricardian analysis. American Economic Review, 84, 753–771

[18] NBSC (National Bureau of Statistics in China). (2012). China statistical yearbook 2012. Beijing: China Statistical Press

[19] NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission). (2012). China’s policies and actions for addressing climate change. Beijing: National Development and Reform Commission

[20] Piao, S., Ciais, P., Huang, Y., Shen, Z., Peng, S., Li, J., Zhou, L., Liu, H., Ma, Y., Ding, Y., (2010). The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China. Nature, 467, 43–51

[21] Schlenker, W., & Roberts, M. (2009). Nonlinear temperature effects indicate severe damages to U.S. crop yields under climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106, 15594–15598

[22] Shen, C., Wang, W., Hao, Z., & Gong, W. (2007). Exceptional drought events over eastern China during the last five centuries. Climatic Change, 85, 453–471

[23] Smit, B., & Skinner, M. (2002). Adaptation options in agriculture to climate change: a typology. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 7, 85–114

[24] Tucker, C., Eakin, H., & Castellanos, E. (2010). Perceptions of risk and adaptation: coffee producers, market shocks, and extreme weather in Central America and Mexico. Global Environmental Change, 20, 23–32

[25] Wang, J., Mendelsohn, R., Dinar, A., Huang, J., Rozelle, S., & Zhang, L. (2009). The impact of climate change on China’s agriculture. Agricultural Economics, 40, 323–337

[26] Wang, Y., Huang, J., & Wang, J. (2014). Household and community assets and farmers’ adaptation to extreme weather event: the case of drought in China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 13, 687–697

[27] Xiong, W., Conway, D., Lin, E., & Holman, I. (2009). Potential impacts of climate change and climate variability on China’s rice yield and production. Climate Research, 40, 23–35

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Chinese Post-doctoral Science Fund (2015M570694), and the Major Projects from the National Fund of Social Sciences (15ZDA020) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71431006 and 71503276), and the Ministry of Education Fund of Social Sciences (13JZD016).

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg