Vol. 10, Issue 1 (2021)

Author(s):
Nagma Halima Saik, Dr Bishnupriya Mishra and Aditya Kumar Malla

Abstract:
Climate change is an environmental threat to all the sectors, especially the agricultural sector around the globe. This study investigates perception and awareness of men and women farmers about climate change impact in coastal agriculture. The study was conducted in the Marsaghai and Dwitiyalaya village of Kendrapara district and Sanagbpur and Tirtol village of Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha state with a total sample size of 200. As this is a gender perspective research study, out of the total respondents 100 are men and 100 are women. The men and women respondents are selected by the process of random selection. The respondents’ awareness and perception about climate change was assessed through a well-structured interview schedule by the process of personal interview. The study reveals that, 16% of the men have no awareness about climate change while in case of women farmers it is high i.e. 32% of them have not heard about climate change and why does it happens. 51% of men and 46% of women farmers were aware about the proneness of the area to flood, submergence of crops by flood water and soil erosion. Perception of men and women farmers are mostly consistent with the science of climate change except some respondents had misperceptions about some areas. Different kinds of awareness campaign, training programmes along with gender inlcusive approach on climate change and agriculture can bridge the gap between science of climate change and awareness and perception of coastal farmers. Climate change information and its impact on different genders is very important for farmers as well as policymakers.