Analysis of farmer’s perception of climate change in Wanzhou, Chongqing, China

With the rapid development of urbanization globally, climate change has become the undisputed environmental issue and is likely to exaggerate food security, especially in Chongqing, China. Although Chongqing has issued the document to adapt to climate change since 2009, it is difficult to bring satisfactory performance. As the main actors in coping with food security and climate change, it is essential for farmers to take adaptation measures to cope with climate change. Nevertheless, research shows that farmers’ choices for adaptation are related to their perception. Farmers’ participating in adaptation practices will reduce if they are unable to perceive accurate information. Therefore, in order to help the government formulate relevant policies to increase farmers’ enthusiasm for participating in climate change adaptation actions, in-depth study of the variables affecting farmers’ climate change perception and the extent of the influence of each variable is very important. Farmers in Wanzhou are the targeted group in this research. And the survey is the methodology and questionnaire is the key tool to collect data from the 400 farmers in Wanzhou, Chongqing. The main findings and conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. Most farmers in Wanzhou have an accurate perception of the increase of temperature and precipitation. However, they could not remember clearly the extreme weather events happened a long time ago or on a small scale. In addition, Farmers' risk appraisal, perceived adaptation efficacy and adaptation costs on climate change are strong, while the perceived self-efficiency is weak. 2. Objective adaptation and adaptive incentives have a directly positive impact on farmers’ risk appraisal. Each unit increase in the objective adaptation, the farmers’ risk appraisal on climate change increase by 0.15, while the growth of a unit of adaptive incentives will lead to risk appraisal growth of 0.079. Furthermore, trust in social discourse and adaptive incentives can indirectly affect farmers' risk appraisal on climate change by affecting farmers' objective adaptation. 3. Access to climate change information and adaptive incentives are positively related to adaptation appraisal. Each unit increase in the access to climate change information, the farmers’ adaptation appraisal on climate change increase by 0.227, while the growth of a unit of adaptive incentives will lead to adaptation appraisal decrease of 0.184. In addition, trust in social discourse can indirectly affect farmers' adaptation appraisal on climate change by affecting farmers' access to climate change information. From the findings above, recommendations aiming at improving the farmers’ objective adaptation, access to climate change information, adaptive incentives and trust in social discourse are made in order to further enhance farmers' perception of climate change.