Farmer’s Perception of Climate Change and Factors Determining the Adaptation Strategies to Ensure Sustainable Agriculture in the Cold Desert Region of Himachal Himalayas, India

Agricultural practices in the cold desert region of the Himalayas are frequently affected by climate-induced uncertainty in the past few decades. This research work aimed to examine the following questions: (a) Are there any significant climatic changes in the cold desert region of Himachal Himalayas? (b) How do the local farmers perceive climate change? (c) What and how indigenous and modern climate sensitive resilience measures/practices are being adapted by farmers for risk mitigation? A modified Mann–Kendall (m-MK) test and anomaly index were used to examine the changes in climatic variables over the cold desert region. Data on the observed changes in climatic variables were investigated through gridded products provided by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and farmer perception, and their adaptation measures were collected by an extensive primary survey using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results indicate that farmers’ perceptions of changing rainfall, temperature, and seasons were consistent with historical climatic data. The drying water resources and crop damage were the most pressing concerns for farmers due to climate change activity. The farmers are adapting to climate change by altering their farming practices for agricultural risk management. The binary logistics regression (BLR) model was used to investigate the influence of different variables on the adopting farmer’s decision. The result revealed that various factors like landholding size, accessibility of transport, awareness of climate change, availability of water, and distance from market were responsible for choosing suitable climate resilience adaptation measures. This research contributes to recalibrating appropriate strategies across the cold desert region for designing sustainable agricultural practices.