Perception of an adaptation to climate change by the maize farmers of Baitadi District, Nepal

— A survey research was conducted in Dilasaini and Dogadakedar rural municipalities of Baitadi district, Nepal to study the perception of and adaption to climate change by the maize farmers. Thirty households from each local levels were selected randomly. Primary data was collected through household survey with pre-tested interview schedule, direct observation and focus group discussion. Descriptive statistics along with binary logistic regression model were used for analysis of the data. The total population was dominated by brahmin and chhetri (89.67%) followed by occupational caste (10%) community with economically active population 61.68 percent. The major occupation was agriculture (65%). Farmers were gradually diverted towards other livelihood options like remittance, off farm activities, beside agriculture. 68.33 percent of total households were dominated by male while only 31.67 percent were female dominated. Majority of farmers (91%) perceived changes in climatic affected the maize production. Most of the farmers reported frequent drought followed by off seasonal rain. Almost 78.3 percent households preferred radio for the information related to climate change. Age and agriculture as the major source of income were found significantly affecting the knowledge on climate change negatively. Individuals with agriculture as the major income possess comparatively less knowledge on climate change as compared to their younger counterfeit. The existing climate change coping strategies depends heavily on the traditional knowledge. Promoting the minors with precise information, skills and knowledge, garnered through site-specific researches along with holistic mitigating approaches and scaling up traditional knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation strategy is sure to pave a way forward to climate resilience community.


I. INTRODUCTION
Agriculture continues to be extremely important business in case of Nepal which contributes 32.6% to national GDP and provides employment to 65.6% of population (MoAD, 2015). The stat shows the overall development of the national is impossible without development of this very sector. Agriculture is not only the source of bread and butter but a major source of raw materials to the agrobased industries in Nepal. Agriculture sector contributes more than 60% to the total national export (CBS, 2014). Among the harvests of staple crops; maize is one of the most important crop for mid hill farmers. Climate change is hitting on agriculture mostly developing country like Nepal.
The air temperature near earth surface rose by 0.74 0 C from 1906 to 2005 and scientists estimated it could be increased as much as 6.4 0 C on average during the 21 st century (IPCC, 2007). Nepal's temperature has been reported to be rising at a rate of 0.06 0 c per year as a result of climate change (Dahal, 2006). This could affect crop production as each plant species are most productive or can survive/tolerate only within a certain range of temperature. Climate change has also been linked to changes in precipitation patterns in the country, particularly, the monsoon season. The monsoon season has been shortened with decline in total annual precipitation, and increase in frequency of heavy/intense storms (often leading to flooding) in rainy season as well as droughts in winter season (Pokhrel & Pandey, 2011). Approximately 64% of the cultivated areas in Nepal are heavily dependent on monsoon rainfall and changes in the time and duration of this monsoon rainfall could adversely affect the agricultural production significantly (Lohani, 2007). Maize is produced on nearly 100 million hectares in developing countries, with almost International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology, 5 (5) Sep-Oct, 2020 | Available: https://ijeab.com/ ISSN: 2456-1878 https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab.55. 12 1273 70 % of the total maize production in the developing world coming from low and lower middle income countries (FAOSTAT, 2010). Pant (2012) on the other hand has reported that climate change affected rice and barley production negatively in the country thus, increased food insecurity. Furthermore, increase in disease and pest infestation in crops due to changes in seasonal patterns have been linked with not just decline in production but even extinction of some local crop varieties and natural vegetation . Using crop production and meteorological records, Thomson et al., (1966) showed that a 6 °C increase in temperature during the grain filling period resulted in a 10% yield loss in the US Corn Belt. A later study in the same region showed maize yields to be negatively correlated with accumulated degrees of daily maximum temperatures above 32 °C during the grain filling period (Dale, 1983).
Far-western Nepal is one of the most vulnerable to vagaries of the climate change. Persistent food crises in the region are the reminders of the continuing vulnerability of the region to the effect of climate conditions. This is in large measure due to weak institutional capacity, low paying capacity of the farmers, limited engagement in environmental and adaption issues, and a lack of priority to the sector. This region is quite virgin incase of research study and findings. Those working in the sector of climate change are just providing their service based upon some assumption and eyed seen symptoms. This research tried to drag out the perception and knowledge of the local maize farmers about climate and climate change and measured adapted by them to cope with the problem.
Nepal has various types of agriculture zones in which agricultural sectors damaged in Terai and more in hills and mountain due to increase in temperature . Increased concentration of CO2 causes vigorous growth of the crops which ultimately lead to reduce level of organic carbon from soil, soil micronutrients and enhanced activity of micro-organisms (Malla, 2003). Some of the farmers are happy with the changes; for example, Farmers of Manang and Mustang districts have noticed improved apple sizes in recent years (Dahal, 2005). There will be gains in some crops in some regions of the world; the overall impacts of climate change on agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening global food security (IFPRI, 2009).
Adaption to climate change may include many measures, one of these is policy reform to adjust/ adapt to climate change. Individuals, households, government or any stakeholders can implement effective adaption strategies to adjust the climate variations and uncertainties based on the resources availability and economic and social conditions. Nepal gradually adopting new cropping system and changed the cropping system from rice-wheat-maize to fruits and plantation crop like banana which is less sensitive to climate change (Gurung, 2008). Promotion of rain water harvesting in mountainous region can be adoptive strategy for existing as well as projected impacts of drought (MOPE, 2004). Sloping Agriculture Land Technology and eco-friendly vegetable production in Jugedi khola watershed, kabilash helped to cope with impacts change in that area (Ghimire, 2008). Economics diversification can also be an important adaption strategy for the developing countries to reduce dependence on climate sensitive resources (UNFCC, 2007). Zero tillage is an emerging coping for climate change that reduces 27% green house gases emission (AEU, 2010 and 2011).
The study outcomes helped to streamline approaches for achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) specially the poverty eradication, environmental sustainability goals, provides strategy to cope climate change, etc. Climate change induced flood, landslide, soil erosion, erratic rainfall, drought, etc resulting increased risk and uncertainty, however the alteration in the cropping pattern, loss of the local and indigenous variety and use of the hybrid and resistant variety of maize are some of the local strategies in coping the climate change. Thus, this study aimed to estimate the impact of climate change on Maize production in the Baitadi. This study will contribute toward existing knowledge gap and help researchers and policy makers to respond to climate change by adjusting agricultural and environmental policies and practices as needed. This study explores the perception of Farmer's on climate change and its adaption strategies and reducing the vulnerability of the climate change impacts

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was conducted in June-July, 2018 on Baitadi district of Nepal. Dilasiani and Dogadakedar rural municipalities were purposively selected in consultation with community level, district level organization and DADO where maize has been the major staple cereal crops. Pre-testing of interview schedule was done before the field survey by administering the designed interview schedule to the 8 respondents nearby the study area to assure the research design and preliminary information regarding socio-cultural, topographical, and institutional features. Altogether 60 households, farmers with at least 10 years of settlement, thirty from each rural municipality (representing all the wards possible) were selected randomly assuring the availability of relevant information regarding the past trends of climate hazards. Interview schedule was used to collect the primary information. Additionally, 5 focus group discussion and 5 key informant interviews were conducted to generate the general status and distribution of maize production, and effect of climate change on maize production. The major variables included in interview schedule were socioeconomic characteristics, farm characteristics, livelihood options, farmers' perception, their adaption strategies, and crop production trends. The study concentrated on both primary and secondary data. Climatic data related to rainfall, temperature, RH and other required parameters were collected from the meteorological station situated at Baitadi in addition to data from various published journals, research articles, proceeding of various NGOs and INGOs, reports of Distrct Agriculture, Development Office (DADO), District Development Committee (DDC), National Agriculture Research Council (NARC), Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), local leaders and working agencies were the sources of secondary information. The available 10 year climatic data was analyzed to determine the climatic suitability and hazard for maize production in the study area.

a. Methods and techniques of data analysis
Data entry and analysis were done by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS V.16) and Microsoft Excel. The local units of measurements were corrected into scientific one. Both descriptive and analytical methods were used to analyze the data. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were done with regards to the objectives.

i. Qualitative analysis
Qualitative data were analyzed by using the both descriptive and analytical statistics. Qualitative information from the survey questionnaire was quantified with the appropriate scaling method. Farmer's perception was mapped using multiple ranking matrix and likert scale.

Quantitative analysis
Socio-economic and farm characteristics of the respondents like family size, age, occupational pattern, change in size of holding, size of the irrigated holding, distribution of economically active population were described by using simple descriptive statics like frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Impacts and perception of Farmers on the change of climate variables over the time and their adaption strategies were studied by estimating frequency, frequency, percentage, charts and diagram.

Analytical statistics
Changes in the trend of area allocation over the time and productivity changes obtained from both primary and secondary sources were analyzed using trend line estimation in Microsoft Excel.
Climate change impact analysis The log linear regression analysis was done to study the effect of precipitation and temperature on productivity of Maize.

i. General characteristics of study area
The study district, Baitadi, covered an area of 1,519 Sqr. km and had total population of 250,898 (CBS, 2011). The Baitadi districts entail 4 municipalities and 6 Rural Municipalities. Baitadi falls into the farthest western regional districts of Nepal touching Jhulaghat, India, to its boarder. The most rated effect of climate change was reduced quality (3.67) followed by yield loss (3.48), diseases (3.27) and pest (3.13) as shown in Table 2. Climate change is deteriorating the quality of the product which can be attributed to the shift in flowering time and immature maturity or early maturity. In spite of rainfall during harvesting, hailstorm deteriorate the quality of the produce which ultimately results yield loss.   Table 4. Some farmers' intensified routine activities like pruning, fertilizing and pest control activities to cope with the negative consequences of climate change on their maize crops. Much of the farmers still have not gone for crop diversification to cope with the climate change.

vii. Sources of information on climate change
The most of farmers obtained the information on climate change through radio (78.3%) followed by TV (13.3%), internet (5%), Newspaper (1.7%) and educational institutions nearby (1.7%).

Farmer's trust on different information sources
The relatively greater number of the farmers trusted on the media (4.93) followed by scientists, government sources, family member or friends, World Wide Fund, supplier and environmental organization respectively.

Required government interventions to combat climate change
To cope with the effects of climate change first of all government needs to disseminate awareness about climate change using the most effective possible mediums. In addition to this government need to provide trainings on strategic planning at management level to cope with the climate change so that their capacity to cope with climate change will be strengthened. Training for trainers was rated least by the households.

Fig.1: Farmers experience about different climatic parameters
Efforts carried out by the government and nongovernment organizations to cope with climate change    .

IV. CONCLUSION
Climate change poses an increasing threat to the sustainability of agricultural production and livelihood strategies of poor and rural people worldwide. Agriculture is the primary source of food and is greatly dependent on weather and nature. It is primary mainstay of the majority of population and source of livelihood for most of the agriculture are heavily affected by the climate change and its implication in agriculture. Agriculture was the major occupation for the people of both rural municipalities. Farmers were gradually diverting towards other livelihood options like remittance, off farm activities, beside agriculture. Majority of farmers perceived changes in climate variability affected in maize production in recent years. Most of the farmer reported that there has been frequent drought and unseasonal rains. Frequent drought being the major problem possesses detrimental effect on the quality of maize. Farmers were deprived of modern technology and they mainly relied on radio, amongst others, for information about climate change. Change in temperature and rainfall pattern was experienced by majority of the farmers over the years. Minimal farmers' intensified routine activities like pruning, fertilizing and pest control practices to cope the discomforting consequences of climate change on maize crops. Government and non-governmental organizations carried surveys to analyze its' effect. Widespread adaptation efforts and their effective implement, at local and national levels, lags way behind the surging climate change.
Empowering communities with information, technological skills, education and employment is the best way to address vulnerability. A location wise action-research is therefore necessary to identify and document climate change impacts and adaptation strategy.