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Understanding farmers’ perceptions and adaptation to climate change: the case of Rio das Contas basin, Brazil

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Abstract

The vulnerability of the agriculture sector to climate change in developing countries and it’s risks to Brazilian Northeast farmers are very discussed issues on environmental agenda. In this sense, this paper put forward an understanding of the factors that drive individuals to adopt adaptive strategies to cope changing environments as a fundamental issue for the direction and effective formulation of well-targeted public policies. Mediation models were estimated considering two distinct specifications, based in two different groups of variables: (1) adoption of adaptive practices by farmers based only on the impact of climate perception, mediated by belief in the occurrence of climate change; (2) the socioeconomic conditions of the farmers and their properties were additionally included. The main results demonstrated that the Rio das Contas basin farmers’ perceptions about the negative effects of climate change, despite being the main driver, will only affect adaptation behavior when the farmers have believe in the occurrence of climate change. Socioeconomic conditions are overshadowed in predictive power of adaptation by belief on climate change. This outcome may be directly related to the farmers’ cultural aspects, nevertheless, the importance of technical assistance or rural extension services should be also emphasized as an impressive part of farmers is no longer adapted due to lack of knowledge of suitable techniques.

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Notes

  1. The concept of beliefs and perceptions could be related to the concept of mental models as well as the differences in the mental models that different groups of relevant stakeholders may use. More details about this issue can be found in Denzau and North (1994).

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Funding

This research was funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq (Grant Nos. 408382/2013-9; 306647/2015-0, 421791/2016-0 and 305807/2018-8) and by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais—FAPEMIG (CSA-PPM-00022-14) Granted for DAC. Scholarships was provided by CNPq to SMC and by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—CAPES (Finance Code 001) to FRCS and MVP. Therefore, the funding sources had no such involvement in study design; neither in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; nor in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

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  1. Departamento de Economia Rural, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Economia Aplicada, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Avenida Peter Henry Rolfs, s/n, Campus Universitário Viçosa, Edifício Edson Potsch Magalhães, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, CEP 36570-900, Brazil

    Sabrina de Matos Carlos, Dênis Antônio da Cunha, Marcel Viana Pires & Fabiana Rita do Couto-Santos

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  1. Sabrina de Matos Carlos
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de Matos Carlos, S., da Cunha, D.A., Pires, M.V. et al. Understanding farmers’ perceptions and adaptation to climate change: the case of Rio das Contas basin, Brazil. GeoJournal 85, 805–821 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-019-09993-1

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