Constraints faced by the paddy growers in adaptation to climate variability and suggestions to overcome them

The study was carried out in the three tehsil of Kolhapur district. With the use of an interview schedule that was specifically created, 150 paddy growers were personally interviewed in order to gather data. Ten independent variables, including personal, socioeconomic, and psychological traits of the paddy growers, were selected, and when necessary, specially designed schedules and tools were used to measure them. The results revealed that, the highest constraint faced by paddy growers is the higher cost of agricultural inputs, followed by the problem of low prices for produce in the market, difficulty in carrying out agronomic practices due to cloudy weather, higher labour wage rates, and the non-availability of labour in the village at the right time for agricultural work. Other constraints include lack of finance/credit facilities, non-availability of timely credit/loans from banks, lack of information about long-term climate change or weather forecasting, non-availability of timely inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. in the village, lack of knowledge about appropriate adaptation strategies in paddy fields in response to climate variability, and the long distance to the regulated market from the village, which are ranked second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh, respectively.