Climate Change Adaptability of Farmers: Malaysian Case Study

The climatic factors are changing very rapidly in Malaysia. Agriculture which depends heavily on climate is becoming increasingly vulnerable to risk and uncertainty. In order to face and manage the situation, farmers are trying in various ways and government and other external agencies are providing several supports to adapt to these climatic vulnerabilities. However, there is still a gap between farmers’ adaptability and climate change. This study analyses paddy farmers’ perception of climatic variations and vulnerabilities and relevant supports and techniques to adapt to the situation. The data were collected through questionnaire survey on 198 paddy producing farmers in the area of Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA), North-West Selangor, Malaysia. This study uses descriptive statistics, ordinal regression, percentile, and scale analysis. The study finds that most farmers do not have a clear perception of the climatic changes and vulnerabilities. Farmers’ adaptation practices to climatic vulnerability are mostly based on their common sense responses. It suggests that farmers need necessary training and support from the government and international agencies to enable them to effectively adapt to the climatic vulnerability and avert any adverse effect on their socioeconomic sustainability and national food security. Farmers’ expectations of several new supports has no statistically significant influences on their current adaptability with climatic changes, but their priority ranking for these expected supports will help policymakers to determine future support for climatic change adaptation for agriculture sustainability and livelihood sustainability under adverse climatic change scenarios, especially for Malaysia.