Climate Risks, Farmers Perception and Adaptation Strategies to Climate Variability in Afghanistan

This study examined the farmers’ perception, adaptation measures and coping strategies to mitigate climate extremes in Afghanistan using parametric and non-parametric methods. We selected the central agro-climatic zone to conduct farm household’s survey since it has significant climate variability in terms of maximum, minimum temperature and rainfall. Results show that majority of the farmers (>80%) perceived a “high to a very high” degree of climate induced impact on loss of employment, labor scarcity, pest and disease outbreak and decline in groundwater level. The important climate adaptation and coping strategies viz., changing cropping patterns, drilling new bore wells and farm diversification were extensively practiced by the farmers. In the policy side, establishing automatic weather stations, agro advisory services, weather-based crop insurance and climate-smart agricultural practices are the potential policy options to protect farm households from climate extremes.