An Economic Analysis of Climate Change in Dry Lands of Maduri District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The study was conducted in dry lands of Madurai district with a sample size of 150 to study the vulnerability, resilience and adaptation strategies to climate change and also to assess the sustainability of dry land farming and livelihood security of dry land farmers. The results revealed that Thirumangalam block was highly vulnerable to climate change with the index value of 0.689. In ecological sustainability, sorghum was more sustainable. Economic viability analyses showed that cotton was more sustainable The dependency on local inputs was higher for both cotton and sorghum with comparative higher usage of local inputs, such as labour, seed and Farm Yard Manure. Migration percentage was relatively high in dry land agro ecosystem due to low employment generation in this system. Thus, the resilience analysis showed that the migration has to be checked, savings has to be enhanced. Farm Yard Manure was the most important green technology adopted by the farmers with a proportion of 50.00 per cent.  The livelihood security analyses that farmers in dry land system were much secure in habitat and social network security. Farmers’ perceived decline in yield was the most important impact of climate change and labour shortage was the most important constraint in adoption of climate resilient technologies. Policy implication suggested include suitable technological interventions should be given to sorghum farmers to make the crop more economically viable. Government should initiate agricultural development and welfare programmes for dryland farmers in the region.