ESD Earth System Dynamics ESD Earth Syst. Dynam. 2190-4987 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/esd-6-225-2015 Farmers' perceptions of and adaptation strategies to climate change and their determinants: the case of Punjab province, Pakistan Abid M. 1 2 Scheffran J. 1 Schneider U. A. 3 Ashfaq M. 4 Research Group Climate Change and Security, Institute of Geography, University of Hamburg, Grindelberg 7, 20144 Hamburg, Germany School of Integrated Climate System Sciences, Grindelberg 5, 20144 Hamburg, Germany Research Unit Sustainability and Global Change, University of Hamburg, Grindelberg 5, 20144 Hamburg, Germany Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 11 05 2015 6 1 225 243 Copyright: © 2015 M. Abid et al. 2015 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/6/225/2015/esd-6-225-2015.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/6/225/2015/esd-6-225-2015.pdf

Climate change is a global environmental threat to all economic sectors, particularly the agricultural sector. Pakistan is one of the countries negatively affected by climate change due to its high exposure to extreme events and low adaptive capacity. In Pakistan, farmers are the primary stakeholders in agriculture and are more at risk due to climate vulnerability. Based on farm household data from 450 households collected from three districts in three agroecological zones in the Punjab province of Pakistan, this study examines how farmers perceive climate change and how they adapt their farming in response to perceived changes in climate. The results demonstrate that awareness of climate change is widespread throughout the area, and farm households make adjustments to adapt their agriculture in response to climatic change. Overall 58% of the farm households adapted their farming to climate change. Changing crop varieties, changing planting dates, planting of shade trees and changing fertilizers were the main adaptation methods implemented by farm households in the study area. The results from the binary logistic model reveal that education, farm experience, household size, land area, tenancy status, ownership of a tube well, access to market information, information on weather forecasting and agricultural extension services all influence farmers' choices of adaptation measures. The results also indicate that adaptation to climate change is constrained by several factors such as lack of information, lack of money, resource constraints and shortage of irrigation water in the study area. Findings of the study suggest the need for greater investment in farmer education and improved institutional setup for climate change adaptation to improve farmers' wellbeing.

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