Climate Change Response at the Farm Level: A Review of Farmers’ Awareness and Adaptation Strategies in Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of farmers’ awareness and a typology of adaptation strategies undertaken in order to combat climate change at the farm-level in developing countries. The review suggests that the extent to which farmers are aware of climate change is uneven, and the link between perception and action is often unclear. Farmers adopt a range of strategies from financial responses, to agricultural changes, to religious and cultural strategies, to the use of local and wider support networks. However, whether these actions are adaptation or coping strategies is debatable. Response to climate change has both spatial and temporal dimensions; and a host of socio-economic factors (e.g., lack of resources, gender or cultural identities) influence adaptation strategies. Finally, these adaptation strategies can be seen as nested within broadly defined livelihood strategies.