On farmers’ perceptions of climate change and its nexus with climate data and adaptive capacity. A comprehensive review

Abstract

Farmers’ perception of climate change is crucial in adaptation intention and process. However, farmers’ perceptions may not be timely, accurate and systematically consistent with the direction and significance of observational records. Although some research compared farmers’ perceptions and climate data, little attention has been paid to comprehensibly analyse both data sources discrepancies based on empirical studies results. By combining bibliometrics and a systematic review approach, we identify which approaches are used to compare perceived and observed data, how both patterns have been mutually evolved, which factors determine their (in)consistency, and if their accordance and robustness affect farmers’ adaptive capacity. We analyse a portfolio of 147 papers collected from the Scopus library catalogue since 2000. The bibliometric analysis was coupled with an exploratory analysis of 98 papers selected from the original portfolio. The literature is extensive, fast-growing, and spans several disciplines. We identify four consolidated research lines: i) perceived risk and farmers’ adaptive capacity nexus, ii) crop vulnerability due to temperature increase and erratic rainfall patterns, iii) forecasting use and influence in farmers’ decisions, and iv) climate change awareness conditioning farmers’ profiles. Nonetheless, we observe some research gaps: 1) a conceptual mismatch in ‘normal pattern’ or ‘drought’ meaning, 2) poor or limited data from meteorological stations, 3) overlook or oversimplification of local knowledge in describing perception, 4) farmers’ memory weaknesses to keep track of climate alterations, and 5) a geographical dissonance in favour of Global South regions. Our science-metric study also reveals some research questions to be consolidated: Can the perception of extreme events increase climate change awareness? Can greater awareness reduce discrepancy with observed data? How do heuristics and socio-psychological filters influence farmers’ awareness and interpretation of climate data? We suggest putting major efforts into reinforcing these research lines as part of a novel domain-dependent trend to reduce the discrepancy.

People’s Perception on Climate Change: The Context of Local and Global Discourse

“…However, more than 90 per cent of the sample, especially when it came to the average summer temperature, perceived the temperature to be rising, according to Ricart et al (2022). In terms of increased frequency and severity, farmers ranked drought risk higher than flood risk, with significant internal consistency across the samples (90% vs. 70%, respectively).…”

Dissemination of climate smart agricultural knowledge through farmer field schools (FFS): analyzing the application CAS knowledge by smallholder farmers

“…Some researchers have evaluated the precision of farmers’ perceptions of climate change. For example, Belay Bedeke and Tebeje (2022) and Ricart et al (2022) examined the connection between farmers' perceptions of long-term variations in temperature and precipitation and the climatic patterns noted by the adjacent meteorological stations. This study observed that the farmers’ perceptions conformed with the definite national climate data presented in Figure 5.…”

Climate change impacts and the rice farmers' responses at irrigated upstream and downstream in Indonesia

“…The literature review conducted by Ricart et al. (2022) reported that research on perceptions of climate change impacts was generally dominated by southern and eastern African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania) and South Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal) with few cases from the northern, central, and western regions.…”

“…As a result, adaptation to the effects of climate change is required in order to reduce the vulnerability of their livelihood systems. Farmers implemented a wide range of adaptation measures in response to climate change conditions, such as non-farm activities ( Ali et al., 2021 ), improved seed variety ( Dendir and Simane, 2021 ), and crop diversification ( Ricart et al., 2022 ). Previous researches have found that farmers who have a good understanding and perception of climate change are more likely to choose the appropriate adaptation strategy ( Fahad et al., 2020 ; Ojo and Baiyegunhi, 2021 ).…”