The general objectives of the assessments were:
The following research questions guided the study:
Primary data were collected at community and household level through indepth household interviews and partly gender disaggregated focus group discussions. The interviews revealed that:
Erratic precipitation
Decreased water availability
Increased pests and diseases
Physical and socioeconomic stress and shocks (e.g.,landslides, heavy precipitation, windstorms, acute food shortages
The study found that adaptive capacity in the study area was broadly determined by poverty and the reliance on income sources that depended on timely weather patterns. Those who currently depended on off-farm activities or on a variety of livelihood strategies both on and off-farm, and who had comparatively higher educational attainments, were perhaps the ones who were the most able to adapt, as their livelihoods did not entirely focus on professions that were dependent on predictable weather events. It was the poorer farmers in the region, with small marginal landholdings at a distance from markets, who depended solely on agriculture and had few income generating options, who found it hardest to adapt.
The document proposes some approaches in support of adaptation:
The next part of the document presents some case studies demonstrating how rural poor tackle water and temperature stress in Uttarakhand
A copy of the document can be accessed from this link: