Climate change is a serious threat to the sustainability of global agriculture and food supply that necessitates taking appropriate action for building resilient food production systems and preserving rural economies. In this regard, farmers’ beliefs and concerns about the effects of climate change on agriculture may influence their adoption of adaptation and mitigation practices to address this emerging issue. This work was undertaken to evaluate farmers’ level of concern about climate change in the Jazan province of Saudi Arabia. The study also explored the role of various socioeconomic indicators in shaping farmers’ concerns and highlights various capacity-building initiatives that can be applied at the community level for effective adaptation. Ordered logistic regression was used to study the relationship between farmers’ level of concern and their need for capacity-building initiatives to tackle climate change. Results indicated that insect infestation is the farmers’ top concern, followed by higher crop-diseases incidence and drought. Regression analysis revealed that farmers’ income is a major factor that reduces their concern for insect infestation and crop disease while increases concern for drought. Credit access and information availability have a mixed impact on the farmers’ concern level. Capacity-building initiatives deemed necessary included establishing frequent contacts with extension personnel, timely warnings on droughts and other natural hazards, the training of farmers and extension workers, easy credit facilities, improvement in rural infrastructure and creation of awareness to address specific concern stimulus.

Concerns over the potential harmful impacts of changing climate are strongly echoing around the globe. With its wide range of hazards to human societies, climate change is posing serious threats to human survival and impacting every aspect of human life, including food production systems. It is, therefore, imperative to gauge the local knowledge, perceptions, and adaptation capacity for the effective mitigation of the ill impacts of climate change. In this backdrop, the present study has been designed to investigate the perceptions of farmers regarding causes and impacts of climate change on agriculture. Required data were collected from the Madinah region in Saudi Arabia and analyzed to answer the following study questions: How do farmers perceive impacts of climate change? What factors affect their perceived impacts of climate change? Additionally, what factors affect their perception about the causes of climate change? Individual logit models were used to assess the impacts of various factors on perceived causes and perceived impacts of climate change on agriculture. A multinomial logit model was also employed to figure out significant determinants of perceived causes of climate change on agriculture. Results indicated that the most dominant perceived impacts of climate change are its effects on crop production, followed by drying water sources. The results also revealed that the age of the farmers had a positive effect on their perception of natural processes being the cause of climate change. Similarly, farming experience had an inverse effect on their perceptions regarding causes of climate change. The majority of the farmers seemed clear about the possible drivers of climate change in the country. In particular, about 79 percent of the farmers believed that GHGs and pollution are causing climate change in the country. The findings provide useful insights into farmers’ perceptions about causes and impacts of climate change and may be used by policymakers to strategically design extension and agricultural development initiatives for helping the farmers to implement sustainable agricultural practices to adapt to and lower the adverse impacts of climate change in the Kingdom.

The agricultural sector faces numerous threats arising mainly due to adverse weather conditions. These climatic risks are usually beyond the control of farmers and are mostly uncertain. Managing these risks and uncertainties is crucial in an effort to alleviate poverty and ensure food security for the masses who depend on farm sector for their livelihoods. Land tenure agreements along with other socioeconomic factors play an important role in farmers' decisions to adopt risk coping tools. This study is aimed at investigating the effect of tenure agreements on farmers' decisions to adopt three risk coping tools, namely off-farm diversification, precautionary savings and credit reserves, to mitigate climatic risks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The results revealed that the adoption of traditional risk coping tools is relatively higher among landless tenants when compared with owner-cum-tenant farmers and owner farmers. However, for formal risk coping tools (credit reserves) tenant farmers have significantly lower access when compared with owner farmers. Owner farmers, on the other hand, can access financial institutions to lessen their burden of risks. The findings of the logit models also indicated the significant role of land ownership status, along with perceptions of risk sources and attitude towards risk, on farmers' decisions of adopting off-farm diversification and credit reserves. Therefore, it is suggested that financial institutions should facilitate tenant farmers' access to credit facilities by simplifying and shortening the credit sanction procedure.

This paper is aimed at evaluating the factors affecting the concurrent adoption of two risk coping strategies among hybrid maize farmers, namely income diversification supplemented with off-farm work and contract farming in the wake of changing climatic conditions. Climatic changes and food insecurity at the national level have emerged as key risk elements for hybrid maize production due to varying economic conditions. The present paper addresses these risks by examining various sources of risks faced by hybrid maize farmers and develops ideas to tackle these risks. Bivariate and multinomial probit models were employed to analyze numerous factors that influence farmers’ choice of the simultaneous adoption of income diversification (both on and off the farm) and contract farming at the farm level. The results reveal that hybrid maize farmers’ socioeconomic attributes significantly affect their adoption of risk coping tools. Similarly, the climatic, economic (price-related), biological, and financial risk perceptions and risk preference significantly influence the utilization of risk coping strategies in maize production. These outcomes extend our understanding of farmers’ risk preferences and provide parameters for policymakers to forestall diverse risk sources associated with hybrid maize production.

Water plays a crucial role in sustaining human life and facilitating global economic development. Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan, faces severe water scarcity primarily because of the unregulated extraction of groundwater aquifers. The scarcity of water resources can be effectively addressed by increasing Water Use Efficiency (WUE) achievable through the adoption of High-Efficienscy Irrigation Systems (HEIS). Despite substantial efforts by both public and private sectors, the adoption rate of efficient techniques remains notably low. Evaluating the factors influencing the adoption of high-efficiency irrigation methods and their resultant impact on water use efficiency is the need of time. In this study, an effort was made to study HEIS and its characteristics including the factors affecting the adoption decision, operation duration, and the economics of HEIS. The present study focused, on three main river basins using a multistage sampling technique in highland Balochistan. Three key basins namely Nari River Basin (NRB), Zhob River Basin (ZRB), and Pishin Lora Basin (PLB) Out of 18 basins in Balochistan were selected purposively. These basins are currently dealing with the issue of depleted groundwater table at a rate of more than 5-15 feet annually in the majority of their aquifers. A representative sample size of 300 farmers was chosen using a proportionate stratified sampling technique. Logistic regression was employed to analyze the data and the study findings revealed that the availability of off-farm income and higher education level were found to have highly significant and positive relationships with the likelihood of adoption. Farmers' age and the level of water scarcity were additional significant factors. Along with them, installation costs, maintenance expenses, and technological complexity were key barriers to HEIS adoption. To increase farmers' willingness to accept technology in highland Balochistan, organizations should undertake extension and educational training to increase knowledge and awareness of HEIS.