Understanding Constraints and Enablers of Climate Risk Management Strategies: Evidence from Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Regional South India
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Exploring the perceived constraints and enabling factors of the coping strategies is imperative to successfully plan for climate change adaptation. However, the existing discourses of perceptions of climate change adaptation studies are overwhelmed by the crop sector studies, which are predominantly focused on risk and adaptation and pay little attention to perceived constraints and facilitating factors. To understand these issues, a structured questionnaire survey was adopted in this study to investigate the smallholder dairy farmers’ perceptions of climate change and their coping strategies, as well as barriers and enabling factors to adopt these coping strategies, which could help to plan comprehensive adaptation actions. This section discusses the findings of this study in the following subsections.
4.1. Smallholder Dairy Farmers’ Knowledge of Climate Change and Their Perceptions of Climate Risk and Impacts
The socio-economic characteristics of dairy farmers are important because they influence their economic behavior and determine the ability of farmers to adequately adopt climate risk management strategies. The results of this study demonstrated a significant relationship between their knowledge of climate change and most of the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers (Table 2). These results were found to be consistent with previous studies, indicating that dairy farmers understanding and knowledge of climate change are key drivers to their adaptation approaches [46]. Further, socio-economic features play a vital role in farmers’ perceptions of climate change issues, which, in this study, was a driving indicator of adopting coping strategies. For example, the existing literature has demonstrated that education levels play a key role in the enactment of climate adaptation measures based on perceptions of farmers and climate-related information [48]. In addition to local indigenous knowledge, climate science education would help farmers acquire further knowledge and skills to read and understand a wide range of climate-related information and determine how it impacts dairy. The level of a farmer’s education also influences the quality of decisions made by dairy farmers whenever a climate risk triggers an adaptation response.
Results further indicated significant associations among the respondents in connection to the impacts of educational qualification on their knowledge of climate change. The results showed that the farmers who were more aware of climate change had completed high school education, followed by those who had completed primary education. On the contrary, most respondents who indicated that they did not know about climate change were illiterate or held primary levels of educational qualification. Results also revealed that land holdings of dairy farmers had a significant association with their knowledge of climate change; in particular, those farmers with marginal and small landholdings agreed they had knowledge of climate change, which dominated in this sample study. These findings are consistent with another study, which indicated that farmers’ perceptions play a significant role in the adaptation process [49].
The study conducted in the region has shown that farmers consider drought as the most devastating climate risk, followed by increased pests and diseases, erratic rainfall, hailstorms, and floods. Moreover, the farmers’ views on climate change have been verified by comparing them with the observed rainfall and temperature data obtained from the meteorological stations in the region between 2000 and 2022, as illustrated in Figure S1. The meteorological records reveal that the region has experienced 23 years of erratic annual average rainfall, with seven years (2011–2014, 2016, 2018, 2019) in the last decade having below-average rainfall, leading to droughts as shown in Figure S2. Additionally, drought periods were characterized by high mean temperatures ranging from 34 and 39 degrees, which were reported frequently. Therefore, the perceived climate risks by farmers in the region are consistent with the reported data in the existing literature.
In addition, farmers reported heat stress and increased pest and disease incidence in cattle could be a result of drought and high mean temperatures. Rainfall data show a fluctuation trend notably in the years (2020–2022) with heavy rainfall posing different challenges to dairy activities, particularly the landless and small land-holding farmers who depend on pasture grazing around water bodies. Thus, the findings of this study regarding farmers’ perceptions of climate change issues were consistent with the meteorological records, signifying that farmers were closely connected to weather and climate cycles and were able to describe environmental factors affecting their dairy farming activities. As most farmers were involved in agriculture production, they were mainly concerned about drought and above-average rainfall years (2020–2022) in the region since they caused a series of crop failures. This experience created further worry for future cultivation and cattle feed security. The foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak in the years 2013 and 2018 was confirmed [11] as an extreme challenge by dairy farmers in the study. Unfortunately, stress on cattle is just one way that extreme heat is challenging dairy farmers with small herd sizes.
The reported list of climate change impacts on dairy activities in this study was found to be consistent with previous studies that also indicated similar implications on dairy farming [46,50,51,52]. The findings of this study are consistent with [35,53,54,55], who reported that climate change impacted risks, particularly, heat stress affects milk production in cattle. Persistent dry spells and severe rain were also found to affect the availability of fodder [56] and, in turn, the cost of feed. Thus, the findings of this study were consistent with previous research on the pressures of soaring cattle feed costs and water scarcity issues that led to severe distress from season to season in terms of climate-associated risks [39,57,58], compelling farmers to review their decisions. Previous research has mainly concentrated on the environmental effects that affect livestock productivity, such as the availability of food, shelter, and milk production [59,60]. However, this study has taken into consideration animal welfare concerns, particularly, nutrition, which were previously overlooked.
4.2. Smallholder Dairy Farmers’ Coping Strategies, Constraints, and Facilitating Factors in Adopting These Strategies
The findings of this study have shown that a vast majority of the smallholder dairy farmers opined that buying livestock insurance is the most important adaptation strategy to cope with the climate change impacts, followed by growing drought-tolerant variety grass and off-farm employment (Figure 4). Farmers‘ primary occupations and educational qualifications were found to be the major factors influencing their coping strategies for climate change impacts. In fact, a range of socio-economic, political, institutional, and region-specific environmental factors have a bearing on the adaptive capability of the livestock sector toward climate change. The findings also demonstrated that those farmers with marginal land holdings subject to droughts and unpredictable rainfall are often required to seek off-farm employment, which can involve migration to nearby towns to cope with the financial distress caused by climate change.
The study found that farmers agreed to keep cash in hand as an important adaptation measure to climate risk. Saving money has been a long-standing practice among farmers to tackle tough times by making lifestyle changes when required. Keeping low debt obligations and not depending on money lenders was preferred due to the exorbitant interest rates they charged, which has led fellow dairy farmers to fall into a debt trap. In small-scale mixed crop–livestock systems, farmers have limited economic opportunities compared to cropping systems [61]. Previous studies have shown that keeping cash on hand is the most important risk management strategy for dairy farmers [62,63].
Previous studies also indicated that frequent and persistent droughts lead to the drying of natural pastures, which causes feeding problems for animals and affects the availability of water and the quality of fodder resources in the region [35,64]. Thus, those farmers facing fodder deficiencies made sure to stock some seasonal-based crop residue, purchasing from nearby localities. In addition to diversified feedstock (e.g., drought-tolerant grass, drumstick tree leaves), farmers also introduced diversified livestock to keep their livelihood sustainable through alternative income generation activities and to enhance their livelihood resilience by spreading risk across a number of income channels. For example, farmers reared goats/sheep to gain extra income, particularly to support the period when milk production is usually reduced due to the gestation period. Some women farmers have started chicken farming and selling eggs to earn extra income when their land is not used for agriculture.
Many farmers chose to take advantage of cattle insurance offered by dairy co-operatives, who subsidized the insurance premium by 50%. Although insurance was purchased regularly over the years, some farmers reported losing their animals if they missed a year. A few well-educated farmers were aware that the insurance policy was put in place to deliver protection mechanisms to the cattle rearers against any eventual loss of their animals due to death and to validate the benefit of cattle insurance. They also knew the scheme was designed to achieve improvements in the health of cattle and their products. However, the illiterate farmers were not aware of this scheme in place to support their business. According to [65,66], cattle holding size positively affected the adaptation decisions of dairy farmers. Those farmers in this study who had experienced a series of losses in agriculture operations preferred to increase their herd size to sustain their living standards.
Farmers may face crop failures, loss of income, and additional expenses during climate change. To offset these challenges, they may be forced to sell some of their livestock [49,64]. Additionally, farmers concerned about the potential impact of pest and disease outbreaks on their animals or reduced milk production due to diseases may prefer to sell some of their livestock. This situation is further exacerbated by the threat of increased livestock mortality due to extreme temperature events in the region.
Another strategy adopted by some farmers was to plant additional shade trees in the study regions, particularly for those farmers who lacked an animal shelter. This was considered an excellent adaptation strategy to prevent animals from the impacts of excessive heat stress. Planting trees also served as supplementary fodder sources. An example of a tree that is suitable for the region is Moringa olifera, also known as the ‘drumstick tree’ [67]. It is drought-resistant, can withstand varying temperature ranges, and grows rapidly and vigorously. Leaves of the tree have high protein content with other essential amino acids [67]. Thus, this kind of tree provides shade to the smallholder dairy farmers and provides nutritious feed to the livestock. This tells us how farmers keep indigenous practices in place and how these traditionally practiced mechanisms hold their importance even after multiple generations. Their perception of its effectiveness was based on the belief that it can lower the negative effects of rising temperatures on cattle health and quality milk production.
Moreover, various, green-dried fodder mixes offered to cattle are an experimental strategy to fight climate change, particularly during hot and rainy months, as reported by farmers in the study region. Besides averting the adverse impact of climate change on agricultural and cattle milk production in the future, planting fodder trees for cattle and ruminants is emerging in the region as a practical solution. This approach not only helps with sustainability but also generates income through growth and harvesting. While crop insurance was another potential strategy, some farmers deemed other strategies as important in the study region to their farming approach.
Findings of this study have shown that dairy farmers in the studied region perceived “lack of climate forecast”, “high cost of adaptation strategies”, and “weak institutional support” as the most important constraints of adopting the coping strategies. In addition to the lack of farmers’ knowledge, easy accessibility to available climate forecasting is also a barrier to dairy operations mentioned by the respondents of this study. This was particularly relevant for the landless farmers who were entirely dependent on natural pastures for animal feed and were worried that along with cattle’s health, the operator’s health was at stake in extreme weather conditions. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to establish institutions that will help coordinate and implement farmer-friendly measures and provide educational support to access and interpret climate-related information.
In addition, farmers who had experienced crop failures in agriculture operations were solely dependent on income from milk sales and the sale of manure from the cattle owned. This being the case with most farmers in the study region, adaptation activities became expensive, requiring farmers to make tough choices daily considering the best interest of their animals. Farmers in this study reported that feed costs had jumped 30-40%, while the milk price had not changed to keep pace with additional costs in dairy operations.
Farmers appreciated vaccination programs, but those who lost cattle did not receive support, except for insurance claims. Dairy-cooperative-associated doctors were unable to provide timely information. The required help did not reach farmers on time, resulting in conflicts with policies. Some suggested that more money was needed to buy healthy cattle and that a lack of communication between policy changes and farmers resulted in a lack of support. Lack of support and relevant information affected farmers, particularly when rainfall fell short of expectations. The study found that fundamentally improving access to essential services can effectively protect farmers’ livelihoods and enhance their resilience to climate-change-induced risks, but there were some challenges around communication and access to critical services remaining that needed to be addressed.
Despite these barriers to adaptation discussed above, there were some factors that motivated the local farmers to act upon and adopt timely coping strategies. This study found that in cases of “family interests”, “milk production security”, “economic interests”, and “suitable feed growing condition” are reported as the most important motivating factors that could facilitate farmers’ adoption of climate risk management. Since climate-change-induced risks gravely affect dairy farmers’ operations, they adopt various measures to minimize the impact when encountered. Furthermore, this study found that many farmers had recently built cattle housing on their farms, which was influenced by their strong bond with the animals they raised. The idea of taking collective action at the village level did not seem to drive them to adaptation as only 10% of farmers agreed it may be workable because of income differences, but other aspects took precedence over this. Although a labor-intensive activity, many women preferred to utilize their time in other ways than to become involved in low-productive activities, especially for those who were solely managing every dairy activity. These findings provide an understanding of dairy farmers’ requirements and priorities, which can help guide researchers and policymakers in their effort to develop and align comprehensive strategies to tackle the climate change impacting dairy in Karnataka, India, and other countries with a similar set of dairy systems.
4.3. Determinants of Dairy Farmers’ Coping Strategies for Climate Change Adaptation
In this study, the factors influencing the adaptation strategies were examined by logistic regression analysis. Results revealed a significant positive relationship between most of the socio-economic variables and climate-induced adaptation measures of dairy farmers in the studied region (Table 4). The study results were consistent with previous findings indicating dairy farmers’ socio-economic variables and other factors associated with dairy related to the location, which affected adaptation decisions and coping mechanisms. For instance, Abbas et al. [49] reported that farmers’ education, farming experience, herd size, and access to extension services influenced adaptation strategies such as selling weak/deceased animals, migration, and off-farm income activities in their study of dairy farmers in Punjab, Pakistan.
Furthermore, the age of the farmer, tropical livestock unit, type of animal breed, perceived benefits of the technology, access to extension, and farmer group membership influenced the adoption of climate-smart Brachiaria grass among dairy farmers in Eastern and Western regions of Kenya [68]. Farming experience, cattle herd size, non-agricultural income, membership in an organization, number of farm assets, level of education, and climate zone were the major variables affecting farmers’ adaptation strategies among cattle farmers in Benin and Turkey [34,69]. Thus, to make the policies effective aiming at climate change adaptation, it is, therefore, necessary to take into account the local farmers’ understanding of how dairy farmers perceive climate change, the differences in perception, and what factors influence them to adopt various strategies and decision making in a regional setting.
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