Eco-tourism: An Assessment of Perceptions and Autonomous Adaptation among the Farmers of North East Tamil Nadu, under the Purview of Climate Change.

This study tries to explore the perceptions of local farming community on the changes in climate and to evaluate their existing coping strategies in the Chengalpet areas of Tamil Nadu, a semi arid coastal region of South India. For this purpose, Rapid Rural Appraisals, Focal Group Discussions and in depth surveys have been carried out during the month of June 2013. This research observed that majority of the farmers have perceived climate variability and especially increasing temperature, prolonged dry spells ,erratic rainfall pattern etc based on their personnel and farming experiences. This study observed that climate change has already started to affect the marginal and subsistence farmers to a great extent. The farmers are practicing autonomous adaptation strategies like changing the timing of farm operations like varying planting dates, shifting traditional crops to heat tolerant crops and varieties and shifting from traditional rice paddy cultivation to other cash crops which are less water intensive etc. This study recommends that in order to cope with the future challenges and to attain sustainable crop production and livelihood security, site specific planned adaptations strategies also should be implemented.