This is an outdated version published on 2026-09-28. Read the most recent version.

Farmers' Education, Adoption of Sustainable Practices, and Mitigation of Climate Change Effects of Land Clearing

Authors

  • Bondita Saikia Central University of Karnataka Author
  • Channaveerayya Hiremath Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70917/jcc-2025-002

Keywords:

Climate Change; Deforestation, Productivity, Sustainable Practice

Abstract

The relationship of human with the natural environment is at a critical juncture, with deforestation driven by agricultural expansion being a significant contributor to climate change. The study discusses the awareness of climate change and the environmental impact of farming practices among large landholders in the Kalabuargi district of Karnataka, India. Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 150 farm households across the region. The methodology involves multistage and random sampling, with econometric analyses such as linear, probit, and logit regression models employed to estimate sustainable practice adoption likelihood and the relationship between education and climate awareness. The findings show a significant gap in farmers' awareness regarding the broader implications of land clearing on climate change despite the econometric benefits derived from tree cutting and increased productivity. Educational interventions and access to information were identified as critical factors influencing the adoption of sustainable practices. The study concludes that educational programs and community involvement to raise awareness and promote sustainable farming practices.

References

Arbuckle, J.G., Morton, L.W. & Hobbs, J. 2013, 'Farmer beliefs and concerns about climate change and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation: Evidence from Iowa', Climatic Change, vol. 118, no. 3-4, pp. 551–563.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0700-0Asfaw, S., Shiferaw, B., Simtowe, F. & Haile, M.G. 2016, 'Agricultural technology adoption, seed access constraints, and commercialization in Ethiopia', Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 222–239.Barbier, E.B. 2004, 'The economic linkages between rural poverty and land degradation: some African evidence', Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, vol. 82, no. 1-3, pp. 355–370.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(00)00237-1Baumgart-Getz, A., Prokopy, L.S. & Floress, K. 2012, 'Why farmers adopt best management practices in the United States: A meta-analysis of the adoption literature', Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 17–25.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-8809(00)00237-1Connor, D.J. 2008, 'Organic agriculture cannot feed the world', Field Crops Research, vol. 106, no. 2, pp. 187–190.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2007.11.010Curtis, P.G., Slay, C.M., Harris, N.L., Tyukavina, A. & Hansen, M.C. 2018, 'Classifying drivers of global forest loss', Science, vol. 361, no. 6407, pp. 1108–1111.DeFries, R.S., Houghton, R.A., Hansen, M.C., Field, C.B., Skole, D. & Townshend, J. 2004, 'Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation and regrowth based on satellite observations for the 1980s and 1990s', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 99, no. 22, pp. 14256–14261.FAO 2020, The State of Food and Agriculture 2020: Overcoming Water Challenges in Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.https://doi.org/10.4060/cb1447enFereres, E. & Soriano, M.A. 2007, 'Deficit irrigation for reducing agricultural water use', Journal of Experimental Botany, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 147–159.https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erl165Fischer, R.A., Byerlee, D. & Edmeades, G.O. 2014, Crop yields and global food security: Will yield increase continue to feed the world?, ACIAR Monograph No. 158, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.Foley, J.A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K.A., et al. 2011, 'Solutions for a cultivated planet', Nature, vol. 478, no. 7369, pp. 337–342.https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10452Foley, J.A., DeFries, R., Asner, G.P., Barford, C., Bonan, G. & Carpenter, S.R. et al. 2005, 'Global consequences of land use', Science, vol. 309, no. 5734, pp. 570–574.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1111772Gattinger, A., Muller, A., Haeni, M., et al. 2012, 'Enhanced top soil carbon stocks under organic farming', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 109, no. 44, pp. 18226–18231.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1209429109Gebbers, R. & Adamchuk, V.I. 2010, 'Precision agriculture and food security', Science, vol. 327, no. 5967, pp. 828–831.DOI: 10.1126/science.1183899Griscom, B.W., Adams, J., Ellis, P.W., Houghton, R.A., Lomax, G. & Miteva, D.A. et al. 2017, 'Natural climate solutions', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 114, no. 44, pp. 11645–11650.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710465114Gurr, G.M., Wratten, S.D. & Luna, J.M. 2016, 'Multi-function agricultural biodiversity: Pest management and other benefits', Basic and Applied Ecology, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 107–116.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2005.07.002Hobbs, P.R., Sayre, K. & Gupta, R. 2008, 'The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 363, no. 1491, pp. 543–555.https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2007.2169IPCC 2021, Climate Change 2021: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325844Kassie, M., Teklewold, H., Marenya, P., Fischer, E. & Jaleta, M. 2015, 'Production risks and food security under alternative technology choices in Malawi: Application of a multinomial endogenous switching regression', Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 640–659.https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12107

22Kumar, A. & Reddy, V. 2023, 'Forest loss and climate variability: Evidence from Southern India', Climate and Environment, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 55-70.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10018-023-00345-6Kremen, C. & Miles, A. 2012, 'Ecosystem services in biologically diversified versus conventional farming systems: Benefits, externalities, and trade-offs', Ecology and Society, vol. 17, no. 4, p. 40.https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-05035-170440Lambin, E.F. & Meyfroidt, P. 2011, 'Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 108, no. 9, pp. 3465-3472.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1100480108Lal, R. 2015, 'Restoring soil quality to mitigate soil degradation', Sustainability, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 5875–5895.https://doi.org/10.3390/su7055875Laurance, W.F., Clements, G.R., Sloan, S., O'Connell, C.S., Mueller, N.D. & Goosem, M. et al. 2014, 'A global strategy for road building', Nature, vol. 513, no. 7517, pp. 229–232.https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13717Lawrence, D. & Vandecar, K. 2015, 'Effects of tropical deforestation on climate and agriculture', Nature Climate Change, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 27–36.https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2430Liu, T., Bruins, R.J. & Heberling, M.T. 2018, 'Factors influencing farmers' adoption of best management practices: A review and synthesis', Sustainability, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 432.https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020432Mbow, C., Smith, P., Skole, D., Duguma, L. & Bustamante, M. 2014, 'Achieving mitigation and adaptation to climate change through sustainable agroforestry practices in Africa', Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, vol. 6, pp. 8-14.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2013.09.002Meyers, R. & Singh, S. 2022, 'Agricultural deforestation and its socio-economic drivers in India', Environmental Policy Review, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 245-267.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpolrev.2022.245Meijer, S.S., Catacutan, D., Ajayi, O.C., Sileshi, G.W. & Nieuwenhuis, M. 2015, 'The role of knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions in the uptake of agricultural and agroforestry innovations among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa', International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 40-54.https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2014.912493Newbold, T., Hudson, L.N., Hill, S.L., Contu, S., Lysenko, I., Senior, R.A. et al. 2015, 'Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity', Nature, vol. 520, no. 7545, pp. 45-50.https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14324Nyanga, P.H. 2012, 'Factors influencing adoption and area under conservation agriculture: A mixed methods approach', Sustainable Agriculture Research, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 27-40.https://doi.org/10.5539/sar.v1n2p27Pan, Y., Birdsey, R.A., Fang, J., Houghton, R., Kauppi, P.E., Kurz, W.A. et al. 2011, 'A large and persistent carbon sink in the world’s forests', Science, vol. 333, no. 6045, pp. 988-993.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1201609Pradhan, P., Fischer, G., van Velthuizen, H., Reusser, D.E. & Kropp, J.P. 2015, 'Closing yield gaps: How sustainable can we be?', PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. e0129487.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129487Rockström, J., Falkenmark, M., Karlberg, L., Hoff, H., Rost, S. & Gerten, D. 2010, 'Future water availability for global food production: The potential of green water for increasing resilience to global change', Water Resources Research, vol. 45, no. 7, pp. W00A12.https://doi.org/10.1029/2007WR006767Smith, P., House, J.I., Bustamante, M., Sobocká, J., Harper, R., Pan, G. et al. 2021, 'Global change pressures on soils from land use and climate change', Global Change Biology, vol. 27, no. 9, pp. 1706-1719.https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13068Tilman, D., Cassman, K.G., Matson, P.A., Naylor, R. & Polasky, S. 2002, 'Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices', Nature, vol. 418, no. 6898, pp. 671–677.https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01014Tilman, D., Balzer, C., Hill, J. & Befort, B.L. 2011, 'Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 108, no. 50, pp. 20260–20264.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1116437108Varma, T. & Joshi, P. 2024, 'The role of policy frameworks in mitigating deforestation in India', Policy and Governance, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 123-138.Zhang, N., Wang, M. & Wang, N. 2002, 'Precision agriculture—a worldwide overview', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 36, no. 2-3, pp. 113–132.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-1699(02)00096-0

Downloads

Published

2025-03-31 — Updated on 2026-09-28

Versions

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 1 (2025)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Climate Change

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Farmers’ Education, Adoption of Sustainable Practices, and Mitigation of Climate Change Effects of Land Clearing. (2026). Journal of Climate Change, 11(1), 9. https://doi.org/10.70917/jcc-2025-002 (Original work published 2025)