Empirical analysis of farmers’ adaptation to climate change in southern rice areas of China— Based on household survey data in Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces

Agricultural production conditions have undergone major changes because of climatic change. This has threatened not only food security, but also the farmers’ income. This study investigated the characteristics of household heads, families and social capital, which influenced farmers’ adaptive behavior to climate change, in order to understand famers’ adaptive behavior to climate change and provide a reference for government to make policy scientifically. In this study, rice producing areas of Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces were investigated through interpersonal interviews of 364 households. Using the Poisson Regression model in STATA statistical software, the paper analyzed the factors influencing the farmers’ adaptive behaviors to climate change. According to the survey data, adaptive measures to climate change most likely used by farmers was planting excellent rice varieties, which was orderly followed by turning to off-farm employments, repairing irrigation channels, changing irrigation frequency, adjusting planting and sowing time, buying agricultural insurance, adopting conservation farming techniques, diversified planting, adjusting fertilizer and pesticide application pattern and switching to other crops. The number of adaptive measures taken by farmers ranged from 0 to 8, with an average of 4.49. The main reason for giving up taking adaptive measures to climate change for famers was high costs, followed by unawareness of any adaption methods and labor shortage. Model results indicated that the gender and education of household head, family size, income structure, planting scale, social capital, meteorological information and agricultural extension services significantly impacted the adaptive behaviors of farmers to climate change. In order to enhance the adaptive capacity of farmers, it was essential for government to increase agricultural subsidies, improve agricultural insurance, rural infrastructure and transfer of arable land, guarantee food purchase price, and strengthen agricultural technology extension system. Furthermore, the farmers should to strengthen themselves through the construction of social network, social trust and social norms, which also contributed to enhance their ability to cope with natural risks.