Adaptation strategies followed by the dairy farmers’ to mitigate the adverse effect of climate change in Jharkhand

Abstract

For sustainable livestock farming, it is very important to reduce the climatic vulnerability which can be achieved through climatic adaptation at the farm level. As the climatic adaptations enable the rural households and communities to reduce adverse effects of climate change, it is utmost needed to have the knowledge of location-specific adaptation strategies followed by the dairy farmers’. With this view, the present study was conducted on 240 dairy farmers in three different agro-climatic regions of Jharkhand to assess the adaptation strategies followed by them. The data was collected through a pre-structured interview schedule and analyzed to draw a meaningful interpretation.The results indicated that majority of the respondents (63.75%) belonged to the medium level adaptation category followed by low (25.83%) and high (10.42%) level adaptation category, respectively. The study also revealed that maximum respondents adapted preservation of fodder, using more amounts of crop residues and hay, changing the feeding and grazing schedule, providing frequent clean and fresh drinking water during hot days, extra bathing of animals, changing the micro-climate in shed, providing bedding during extreme winters, and providing more health care practices on continuous basis. The level of adaptation of the respondents was found to be significantly correlated with age, experience, land holding, annual income, socio-economic status, mass media exposure, extension person contact, decision making ability, innovativeness, risk orientation and scientific orientation. Thus, the findings of the study suggest that there is need to organize awareness camp and trainings to make the farmers more aware about the benefits of adapting various mitigation strategies for sustainable dairy farming,