Factors Affecting Farmers' Perception and Adaptation Behavior in Response to Climate Change in Hamedan Province, Iran

The climate is changing and agriculture sector is heavily dependent on climatic changes. Considering the key role of perception and its impact on behavior and given the importance of climate changes in today’s world, the present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the factors affecting perception and adaptation behavior of farmers in response to climatic changes in Hamedan, Iran. For this aim, first, the factors affecting the farmers’ perception and adaptation behavior were extracted from literature review. Then, a questionnaire was developed, and to determine its validity, the questionnaire was examined by a panel of experts. Further, to measure the reliability of the research instrument, a pilot test was conducted. The statistical population of the research consisted of 115,160 farmers in Hamedan Province and the sample size based on Krejcie and Morgan table was determined as n= 384 farmers. Then, a stratified random sampling with proportional allocation was used. The findings indicated that among the studied variables, knowledge, perception, and belief with path coefficients of, respectively, 0.53, 0.32, and 0.18 had the maximum impact on the adaptation behavior, while the maximum impact on perception belonged to belief and knowledge with path coefficients of, respectively, 0.56 and 0.35. According to the results, knowledge, which had the highest contribution in explaining behavior, was not seen in the Arbuckle et al. (2015) model. Therefore, to make it easier for the farmers to communicate and facilitate the transfer of information on climate change, establishment of community-based organizations is suggested. In addition, by enhancing the level of farmers awareness about climate-smart agriculture, it is possible to take major steps to improve their adaptation to climate changes.