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Farmers' Awareness on Climate Change Related Issues at some Irrigable Areas of Batticaloa District, Sri Lanka

Author Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Eastern University, SRI LANKA
  • 2

Int. Res. J. Environment Sci., Volume 1, Issue (2), Pages 29-32, September,22 (2012)

Abstract

The research was conducted at ten irrigation command area of Batticaloa district during the period from January 2011 to May 2011 to assess the socio-economic condition of farmers, awareness on recent change in extreme climatic events such as flood, increasing trend of rainfall and existing adaptation methods against those events. The primary and secondary data were collected among 300 farmers through questionnaire survey, key informant discussion and direct observations. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the data analysis using SPSS software and MS Excel. The results show that, 70% and 61% of the farmers are aware about the changing pattern and the increasing trend of flood and drought respectively. As far as the adaptation is concerned, 43% of the farmers are adapting new agronomic practices in paddy cultivation such as reuse of drainage water, increase the number of ploughing, shifting the cultivation period and use of tolerant crop variety. It is concluded that the awareness on recent climate change impacts on productivity among the people residing in the study area is inadequate and the agronomical adaptation percentage of the farmers were less compare to the increased trend of climate change. Therefore, conducting awareness programme by the respective authority will create some awareness on climate change and adaptation techniques among those people.

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