Constraints faced by soybean growers in employing adaptation measures towards climate change

Introduction

Climate change is one of the major issues the world is currently confronting in the twenty-first century. Changes in the mean or variability of the climate's qualities that last for a long time typically decades or longer can be used to identify long-term changes in the climate. The major environmental issue of climate change has an impact on agricultural production worldwide. The Akola district of Maharashtra is not exempt from the escalating average temperatures and unpredictable rains plaguing India. Perhaps the most urgent problem facing humanity is climate change. Because of lags in the climate system, climate stressors will continue to materialize despite massive mitigation measures (IPCC, 2007) [5] . Planning for adaptation aims to create and execute plans and policies that aim to moderate or reduce harm associated with observed and projected climate hazards (IPCC, 2007) [5] . Climate change is expected to influence crop production, hydrological balance, input supplies and other components of agricultural systems. However, the nature of these biophysical effects and human responses to them are complex and uncertain. Climate change and agriculture are interrelated processes. Due to its sensitivity, any change in the climate can cause significant alterations in the crop yields. The majority of farmers have difficulties when attempting to implement climate change adaptation measures. Long-term climate change is poorly understood, and there are no financial incentives for planting supplies. The increased cost of agricultural inputs and the low market price of products are the additional limitations. The study also suggested that weather forecast data be disseminated and made available in real time via social media (TV and radio) and agricultural extension workers to farmers. The goal should be to raise one's educational level to the point when vulnerability may be avoided (Suryawanshi, 2022) [4] . Considering this, a study on the assessment of constraints to the adaptation of coping mechanisms for climate change was carried out at the farmer level to know the constraints www.extensionjournal.com faced by soybean growers while adaptation is assessed.

Materials and Methods

Maharashtra is a state with most of the population depending on the agricultural sector for their livelihood. Climate variability and climate change pose potential threats to the agriculture sector in Maharashtra state. The present study was undertaken in Akola district of Maharashtra out of eleven districts in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra State; Akola, district was purposively selected for the study. From the selected district, two tahsils were purposively selected viz. Akola and Barshitakli tahsils of Akola. These two tahsils were also selected based on area under the soybean cultivation. From each selected tahsil, 5 villages were selected for the present study from each tahsil. Thus, in all, 10 villages were selected for this study. From each selected village 15 respondents were selected for the present study who have been growing soybean crop for the last five years. Thus, in total 150 respondents were selected for the present study by using a simple random method. The selected respondents were interviewed personally with the help of pre-tested and well-structured interview schedule was used for collecting information on paddy cultivation. The collected data were analysed using the following statistical techniques; 1) percentage analysis with a well-structured and interview schedule. This study therefore identified the constraints encountered by the farmers in the selection of adaptation strategies in the study area.

Percentage analysis: It refers to a special kind of rates, percentages are used in making comparison between two or more series of data collected from the respondents. A percentage is used to show the relationship between the series. Percentage = (No. of respondents/ Total No. of respondents) * 100

The Percentage was calculated to measure variables. Percentage analysis was used in descriptive analysis for making simple comparison.

Results and Discussion

The results obtained from the present investigation as well as relevant discussions have been summarized below.

Conclusion

Our study underscores that the major constraint faced by soybean growers is lack of information about accurate weather forecasts and lack of technical know-how on climate change and other constraints like dependence on monsoon and lack of training on adaptation strategies by extension personnel and some other major constraints like inadequate knowledge about climate resilient varieties, water shortage and lack of institutional support and difficulty to work in severe temperature and low literacy level of soybean growers is also expressed by some of the growers. The above constraints need to be addressed by considering suggestions given by soybean growers is crucial enhances farmer readiness to combat the effects of climate change in the region.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementI volunteer my heartfelt thanks to my respected research advisor Dr. U.R. Chinchmalatpure for his wise advice, thoughtful inspiration, helpful feedback, valuable suggestions, ongoing support, friendly attitude, and willing assistance throughout the research and writing of the manuscript.

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