Farmer Perception And Engineering Adaptation To Climate Change

Climate change has become an objective fact that all human beings are facing in the current society. And it is constantly changing our world. Climate change is not only an environmental question, but also a social development question. The IPCC(2007) predicted that all parts of the world would be affected by climate change, but the impact would be most serious in the developing countries. Under this background, the impact of climate change is inevitable and will exceed the current response capacity. In this case, measures must be taken to adapt to these influences and changes. It has become a common problem that all countries in the world must be faced with to deal with the challenges of climate change.Agricultural production is closely related to climatic conditions. It is mainly reflected in the following three aspects: i) it increases the instability of agricultural production, so farmers income will be more instability; ii) it will cause the change of agricultural production conditions, which leads to the production cost and investment increase significantly; iii)it causes the layout and structure change of agricultural production. As an agricultural country, it is particularly important to research the agricultural adaption to the climate change in China. It is also the focus of implementing sustainable development strategies.Cognition is the basis of behavior. Farmer’s perception of climate change determines their behavior to respond to the climate change. Using 1350 household survey data from North China Plain, this paper assesses farmers’ perception and engineering adaptation to climate change and perception correctness based on the actual meteorological data. A logistic model is estimated to analyze the factors affecting the farmers’ perception correctly and engineering adaptation. The paper finds that the majority of farmers in North China Plain have perceived climate change, with the correctness of the perception to temperature higher than to precipitation. The influencing factors on the perception of temperature include: gender, education, farming experience, land area, agricultural training, remoteness, irrigation area, extreme weather and weather information. The influencing factors on the perception of precipitation include: education, household income and wealth, the, irrigation area, extreme year, and various village associations. The influencing factors of the engineering adaptation include farming experience, household wealth, ground pipeline, weather information and water conservancy measures. According to the findings, the paper finally provides some policy suggestion for improving farmers’ perception and adaptation on climate change; i) carry out knowledge education and training on climate change; ii) provide more climate disaster warning information to the farmers; iii) increase the agricultural infrastructure investment such as irrigation area; iv) increase and refine the agricultural subsidies; v) promote the communication of farmers cognition on climate change.