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

4.2.2 Farmer’s Experiences
Farmers are experiencing changes in the weather parameters,
like rainfall, snowfall and temperature. Bhomlal, in his early
seventies laments, “In winters 30-40 years ago it used to snow
continuously for 2-4 days, and we used to play cards inside our
houses, we used to keep our livestock also inside safely”. “There
has been no snowfall in December for years now”, a younger
farmer comments. When probed a bit further, they say that
nowadays it snows sometimes a bit later in January- early
February, which results in melting relatively faster and does not
provide the natural manure (soil- moisture conservation) benefits
it used to earlier. They also say now the rainfall is less, erratic
and mostly delayed, which have severe impact on crop
production.
Farmers reported that temperatures are higher than in the past,
monsoon appears late and extreme weather conditions such as
hail storms occur more frequently. Many farmers reported
increase in rainfall intensity with erratic behavior compared to
snowfall in recent years.
For farmers, a ‘good climate’ means sporadic low rainfall during
March-mid-May, peak rainfall during July-August, and moderate
rainfall/heavy snowfall during December/January and absence of
cloud burst events. People consider the onset of monsoon to be
more uncertain compared to other phases of rainfall.
Community perceptions about weather changes in the region
vary among different farmers and between government officials.
As per the information collected from farmers there is an
observed change in rainfall pattern in the region (Table 5.). The
weather has changed a lot in the last 10 to 15 years. Sometimes
rain does not fall, sometimes there is too much rain, and
sometimes rain does not come on time and all this damages the
crops and lowers the yields. Rainfall has declined over the last
and onset of rainfall has become late and erratic.
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Kamla Devi, a small women
farmer from Agastyamuni told
that “during my lifetime I have
seen a lot of changes in
weather, sometimes the
weather is good and gives
good yields and sometimes
not. But now the weather is a
lot different. It is warmer,
there is less water, and
monsoon comes late. Since 5
years ago it became serious
and it started affecting the
crops. Crops are completely
dependent on rain and when
the rain is late there is less
yield”.
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