Understanding the Attributes Related to ClimateChange Perceptions among Rural Householdsin Highlands: The case of Northern Thailand

There remains a scarcity of evidence regarding perceptions of climate change occurrences and their impacts among people highly involved in monocropping systems in highland areas, especially in Southeast Asia.This paper assessed villagers' climate change perceptions and socioeconomic attributes in Northern Thailand using primary data collected from 252 households, including farmers and non-farmers, based on stratified random sampling from eight villages in the highlands of Nan province, which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and probit regression.The result indicates that climate change perceptions were primarily influenced by individual attributes rather than household characteristics.One such attribute was the main occupation.Non-farmers were more likely to perceive climate change phenomena such as increased drought, higher temperature, and change in the number of rainy days, while farmers tended to perceive more climate change impacts such as pest and disease outbreaks and losses in crop yields.Other significant attributes were gender and age.Men and younger people were more likely to perceive climate change phenomena.Residential location, education, household size, household income from agriculture, household income from non-agriculture, household debt, number of farm plots, and landholding size were associated with some aspects of climate change and its impacts.