By Jatindra Dash, IANS
Bhubaneswar : Climate change has its impact on agriculture in Orissa and people are well aware of it, say preliminary findings of a people perception survey.
Water Initiative of Orissa (WIO), an NGO, conducted a survey of over 2,000 people including farmers, farm labourers and people dependent on agriculture or natural resources in the state to find out if fears of climate change are only imaginary or the people really perceived its effects.
It was also meant to gauge the impact of climate change in the state, particularly on water and agriculture.
The NGO said the idea was to get as much raw information as possible, which is free from influence of media and experts.
“Threateningly, we did not find even one response which does not refer to symptoms or effects of climate change,” WIO convenor Ranjan Panda told IANS Monday.
Farmers, comprising 90 percent of the respondents, say their last five years’ production has been less than the peak production level because of the adverse impact of climate change, Panda said.
“They say that their highest production was not in the last five years.”
The findings released Monday clearly attribute this trend to decreasing land productivity and adverse climatic conditions like delay in monsoon or erratic rainfall, he said.
“It marks the end of the first phase of our year-long survey started on the harvest festival of Nuakhai (Sep 16),” Panda said.
The survey findings come at a time when the 13th United Nations climate change conference – attended by representatives from over 180 countries – is underway in Bali, Indonesia.
“This conference is significant as a global body of 700 scientists recently established that climate change is unequivocal, accelerating and beginning to affect vulnerable states,” Panda said.
The respondents to the survey also included of senior citizens, teachers, intellectuals and local experts.
Though most responses were crosscutting over various themes, it could still be clearly made out that people do feel the climate change impact on water, land, agriculture, weather and local bio-diversity, he said.
“At the end of the yearlong perception survey, we will come out with a complete status paper on climate change issues in the state and its mitigation and adaptation,” he said.
Orissa is seen as one of the most vulnerable states when it comes to climate change. Studies done by the WIO in the past have indicated serious climate change trends and desertification process in this coastal state.
“By 2008, we hope to come out with a comprehensive status paper, which will be the first of its kind indicating various climate change issues in Orissa.
“That paper will blend local perceptions with scientific studies and analyses and will come out with clear indicators of how Orissa is truly a hotspot of climate change, what are the threat levels and which are the vulnerable areas and groups,” Panda said.
This kind of grassroots based studies are important for devising future short-term and long-erm action plans, he said, adding that most of the climate change studies have highlighted more on the macro or global perspectives of climate change.