Climate Change and Agricultural Sector in Uttarakhand

The relationship between climate change and agriculture is not a new phenomenon. In last fifty years, there has been a lot of academic focus on dealing with the issues of climate change in the field of agriculture. Climate change is believed to affect agriculture by inducing changes on farmer behaviour, quantity, quality, cost of production; changes in production, consumption, prices, and trade patterns; changes in market responses at global and local levels and these changes not only depend on the domestic and global adaptive capacity their economic impacts also vary by region, by sector, and by stakeholder groups. Climate change is a major global environmental problem and also an issue of great concern to all countries irrespective of their size or level of development. It is established that adverse impacts are likely from increased frequency of extreme weather, floods and droughts and submergence of coastal areas due to sea level rise and extreme climate variability. It is considered that mountain regions are vulnerable to climate change and it will have direct impacts on livelihoods as most of the economic and livelihood sectors are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.