Abstract:
Climate change increases the risks in agricultural production, which seriously challenges the
agriculture and livelihood of residents in the poor areas of western China. Therefore, understanding the
cognition level of farmers on climate change, managing their adapting measures, and recognizing major
factors affecting their adapting measures are of significance for governmental policy-making. Selecting
Lancang River Basin of Yunnan Province that obviously experienced the climate change as the studying
site, the detailed data at village and farmer level was collected via questionnaires and survey. By general
descriptive statistical analysis and econometric model, the major findings include: 1) The surveyed
farmers believed that climate change and natural disasters ( especially drought) would cause the
significant impacts on their agricultural production and local livelihood. 2)Almost all surveyed households
have taken a certain level of measures to adapt the climate change. 3)The number of adapting measures
by farmers was significantly correlated to the factors such as human capital of a family, the related
training received, social capital, etc. Based on the above findings, it is suggested that government should
take the proper measures, such as increasing the farmers'human capital and social capital and enhancing
technical extensions and farmers'training, for improving their adaptability to climate change.