Quantification of Risk Associated with Technology Adoption in Dryland Systems of South Asia

Abstract

Climate change increasingly becomes a challenge for smallholder farmers. Strategies that will help farmers to cope with vulnerability are important. These strategies comprise a variety of interventions ranging from technical, institutional to policy. This study is an in-depth analysis of household level climate change shocks, farmers’ perception of vulnerability, adaptation strategies they followed and risk in technology adoption. A baseline survey was conducted in the dryland system action sites in three states of India: Andhra Pradesh (Kurnool and Anantapur districts); Karnataka (Bijapur district) and Rajasthan (Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur districts) in 2012-13 for 2011-12 production season. A total of 1019 farmers were surveyed.