Farmers in the Environment of Climate Change: A Study of Adaptation and Coping Strategies in West Bengal

Today, entire humanity is vulnerable to climate change at varying scales depending on the geo-environment in which they live and the biosphere from which they draw livelihood. The ‘Ecosystem People’ feel the onslaught of climate change much before others. Farmers of West Bengal being no exception are vulnerable to climate change. The farming system, cropping pattern and productivity have already been affected by the contemporary changes in climate. This study aims at examining the adaptation that they have made and the coping strategies they have designed over a period to withstand climate change. To achieve the objective of the study, agriculture data coupled with meteorological data have been used to assess the changes that have been observed and to assess vulnerability. Using field survey methods with structured survey schedule, vulnerability, adaptation mechanisms and coping strategies have been studied. As many as 209 farmers, 11 farmers taken from each of 19 districts, are interviewed following a multi-staged random sample technique along with visiting their fields to observe coping mechanisms adapted by them. While the coping mechanisms adapted in North Bengal differ slightly from the deltaic part of West Bengal, the adaptation and coping strategies in the Jungle Mahals and western plateau region of West Bengal are very different from the other two physiographic regions. Altered land use, changed cropping pattern, adoption of alternative livelihood and outmigration of environmental refugees are some of the adaptation and coping strategies found to be followed by the farmers in the region. Therefore, the geodemography is also changing very fast in response to climate change reflected through land degradation, desertification and abandonment of cultivation and resultant enhanced vulnerability.