Behaviors and Affecting Factors in Farmers'Adaptation to Climate Change in Poor Regions of China: Empirical Evidences from Lancang River Basin

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.