Farmers’ adaptation and mitigation choices under climate change: evidence from a mixed-methods survey in the Western Himalayas

Abstract Agriculture in the Western Himalayas faces a “dual climate stress”: the compounding impact of slow-onset temperature rise and acute extreme events like cloudbursts. While farmers tend to rely on both customary knowledge and contemporary innovations, evidence on how climate perceptions translate into concrete behavioural change in high-risk hill regions remains limited. This study fills that void by analysing the perceptions, adaptation practices, and mitigation measures of farmers from the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, a region exposed to climate-related hazards such as cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods. Drawing on a concurrent mixed-methods design combining a structured survey of 100 farmers with coded open-ended responses, results show that 90.5% reported changes in rainfall patterns, 83.3% perceived deterioration in soil quality, and 87.7% perceived deterioration in air quality over the past 10–15 years. However, a pronounced “awareness-action gap” emerged: despite high awareness, 96% of farmers did not grow drought-resistant crops or plants and 80% did not grow cover crops, although agroforestry was reported by 55%. Taken together, these patterns indicate an awareness–action gap and are consistent with ‘survival-first’ decision-making under financial and institutional constraints, rather than a simple lack of knowledge. To address this gap, the findings suggest policy options including hyper-local advisories linked to micro-climate data, small-scale varietal trials, and timely insurance-claim settlements. These findings provide context-specific implications for strengthening smallholder resilience in climate-fragile mountain ecosystems.