Farmers' risk perception and its impact on climate change adaptation behavior

摘要

This study measures farmers' risk perception on climate change and explores the effects of farmers' risk perception on their climate change adaptation behavior. Farmers' risk perception was elicited by using a questionnaire survey in Dazu district of China. This study divided risk perception into five dimensions, climate change risk probability perception, severity perception, efficacy perception, self-efficacy perception, costs perception. Our results show that most farmers agreed that climate change has severely affected their lives. Measures taken cannot mitigate the impact of climate change. The ability to cope with climate change is relatively low, and the cost of taking measures is relatively high. In addition, our estimation results indicate that farmers' risk perception have significant effects on their adaption behavior. Specifically, risk probability perception, severity perception, and self-efficacy perception have positive significant effects. The efficacy perception and cost perception have negative significant effects. In addition, farmers' socio-economic factors (education, household income, household size and years in farming) have significant effects on their climate change adaptation behavior. The findings of this study provide implications for policy makers on the promotion of farmers' adaption behavior of climate change in China and other developing world.