Assessing adaptive capacity to climate change of farmers in Gangetic Plains region, India

India has been identified as one of the most susceptible nations to the impacts of climate change. The present study made an attempt to examine the adaptive capacity of farmers living in the Gangetic Plains of India. This study creates an adaptive capacity index for four Gangetic Plains: the lower Gangetic plain, the middle Gangetic plain, the upper Gangetic plain, and the Trans Gangetic plain. It does this by using data from the 77th round of the national sample survey organisation (NSSO), the 2011 census, and the agricultural census of 2015–16, as well as an indicator approach. A total of 29 indicators covers six dimensions: physical resource capacity, financial resource capacity, human resource capacity, social resource capacity, livelihood diversity capacity, and information accessibility. The results show that the trans-Gangetic Plain region has the highest adaptive capacity, while the lower Gangetic Plain region has the lowest adaptive capacity to deal with climate change. Based on the cross-index analysis, the trans-Gangetic plain region had higher adaptive capacity due to higher physical resource capacity, financial resource capacity, human resource capacity, and information accessibility capacity. This paper suggests enhancing the adaptive capacity of farmers in the Gangetic Plains to facilitate the implementation of more effective adaptation measures. We can achieve this by improving the availability of accurate and timely weather information, upgrading irrigation facilities, increasing accessibility to institutional credit, establishing a robust extension service network to disseminate information on changing climate conditions and effective farm management techniques, and promoting livelihood diversification.