Climate change impacts on livestock for sustainable production: A Ricardian approach

Abstract

The present study examined the impact of changing climate on livestock production and adaptation strategies to climate change focusing the South of the state ‘Gujarat’. The samples of over 1200 livestock farmers from South Gujarat region were considered for the study and the farm-level data on net-revenue and its determinants were collected. The economic impact of changing climate on livestock was determined using the Ricardian approach. This approach regresses net farm revenue over a variety of climate, socioeconomic, and adaptive variables in order to identify the factors that drive variability in net farm revenue. The study found that a marginal increase in rainfall boosted net revenue per farm in South Gujarat by ₹142.75 significantly, but a marginal increase in temperature lowered net revenue by ₹9254.29 significantly. The households' adaptation methods to climate change, such as changes in animal breed, fodder and feed management, handling diseases, supplement feed, crop and livestock interactions, and animal shed alteration, were positively related to net revenue. A 2.5°C increase in temperature led to a ₹292.95 crore drop in net farm revenues across all farms, according to the uniform climate scenario. These findings demonstrated the urgent necessity for technological development of adaption packages for dairy production in the coming years. As a result, there is a need for investment in R&D so that researchers can create a farming package for cattle farmers that will allow them to remain in dairy by 2050 and 2100.