Farmers’ perception and strategies for their adaptation to climatic variability in high Andean

Abstract

The lack of information on how climate affects agricultural systems and farmers' response to climate variability is a major obstacle to developing efficient water and resources management plans. The perception of farmers is fundamental, since they are the ones who subsist in the field, face the changing conditions, and their information is necessary for decision making. In this research we provide information on the farmers' perceptions and their adaptation strategies to climate variability in an Andean mountain area (3000 m a.s.l.), representative of the complex interactions between agroecosystems, local communities, and environmental changes. These areas have a highly variable climate and are strongly affected by extreme meteorological events. We interviewed all members of a social organization (comuna) whose livelihoods are agricultural and livestock activities. Results show that the changes that most affect farmers are strong variations in the dynamics of rainfall, temperature and the increment in the occurrence of frost. The increased frequency of extreme events makes them highly vulnerable because they entirely depend on small-scale agriculture. Livestock farmers have left agriculture mainly because they could not adapt to climate change, especially to the occurrence of frost, that now can occur in any month of the year; indeed, they have lost all their crops in a single event, ruining their production and seasonal income. The comuna has an irrigation system thanks to external funding and this is the only adaptation strategy that benefits all farmers. Due to economic constraints, they are unable to adapt to changing conditions and might opt to abandon the fields.