Adaptation of small scale farmers to climatic risks in India - Sustainet

esistant to dry spells, high temperatures and other detrimental weather influences. While planting
traditional crop varieties, farmers used to get some yields under conditions where the new varieties fail
completely. Three decades ago, most of the farmers were using indigenous seed varieties. Now this
ratio is reduced to 50%. Around half of the farmers are completely dependent on the market for their
seed supply.
Climatic variations have indirectly affected livestock population: Due to deficient rainfall and droughts,
the fertility of natural pastureland has reduced significantly. In order to maintain the cattle population,
farmers are constraint to use increasing shares of their land for fodder production. Most of them cannot
afford this and have to sell part of their livestock. Farmers claimed that the number of cattle was
reduced by 70 % when compared to 1990!
2.3.2 Impact on water availability
Important problems related to water availability in the
region:
• Drying up of ponds and wells and thus shortages
of water for irrigation purposes
• Shortage of safe drinking water during longer
periods of the year
• Lowering of ground water table due to over
extraction and insufficient recharge
Farmers in the region claimed that they receive around 25 percent less rainfall in the last decade. This
is a subjectively perceived amount and cannot be backed by scientific proof. Official statistics only
indicate a moderate decrease in total annual rainfall despite an important reduction in rainy days (see
3.2.1).
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