3 Analysis and Discussions
3.1 Farmers’ Perceptions about Changes in Climatic Variables
Almost all the respondents interviewed had observed a change in the climate in the last 20 years and they were in
the opinion of increasing temperature and winds and declining precipitation over the past 20 years. Extreme climatic
events like floods, drought/prolonged dry seasons, and winds were accounted to have increased in the last 20 years.
Perception to climate change was indeed influenced by the agro-ecological zone and farmers in the hilly and windy
areas perceive more changes in climate variables than those in other areas. For those farmers undertaking adaptation,
the leading methods were planting short season crops (87%), planting crops resistant to drought (7%), changing
planting dates (3%) and planting trees (3%).