A Scale to Measure Farmers’ Risk Perceptions about Climate Change and Its Impact on Agriculture

Abstract

Climate change has emerged as one of the key determinants of agricultural productivity. Risks perceptions of farmers’ towards climate change and its impact on agriculture are said to be a strong predictor of their behavioural intentions to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.  Consequently, measuring farmers’ perception about risks associated with climate change is of paramount importance and needs to be studied so that appropriate adaptation measures could be undertaken to mitigate the productivity losses. The present study was an attempt to develop a scale to measure the farmers risk perception about climate change which could be used by researchers. Likert’s summated rating technique was followed for the construction of perception scale. The process started with selection of 30 statements on the bases of Mean Relevancy Weightage (MRW) scores; and the statements were given to 30 farmers in four purposively selected villages (based on their degree of vulnerability to climate change as determined by a State government Report) in Kumaon division Uttarakhand, a North Himalayan state of India which is perennially susceptible to climate change risks and uncertainties. The scale developed finally consisted of 20 statements. The reliability and validity of the scale was computed to find out the precision and consistency of the results. This scale will be useful for researchers and academicians studying farmers’ perceptions towards climate change and its impact on agriculture. It would also be useful for policy makers for developing risk management strategies.