Micro-scale perspectives are seldom included in planned climate change adaptations, yet farmers’ perceptions can provide useful insights into livelihood impacts from interactions between climatic and other stressors. This research aims to understand how climate variability and other stressors are impacting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Azamgarh district, eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Data from 84 smallholder farmers were collected using mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches, including interview and participatory methods, informed by multiple stressor and sustainable livelihood frameworks. Results revealed that farmers are increasingly facing problems caused by the reduced duration and number of rainy days, and erratic rainfall. Anomalies in seasonal cycles (longer summers, shorter winters) seem to have altered the local climate. Farmers reported that repeated drought impacts, even in years of moderate rainfall, are adversely affecting the rice crop, challenging the formal definition of drought. Climate variability, identified as the foremost stressor, often acts as a risk multiplier for ecological (e.g., soil sodicity), socio-economic (e.g., rising costs of cultivation) and political (e.g., mismatching policies and poor extension systems) stressors. In addition to climate stresses, resource-poor marginal groups in particular experienced higher risks resulting from changes in resource management regimes. This study provides an important cue to revisit the formal definitions of normal rainfall and drought, accommodating farmers’ perceptions that evenly distributed rainfall, and not total rainfall is a key determinant of crop yields. Though India has developed adaptive measures for climate change and variability, integration of farmers’ perceptions of climate and other stressors into such policies can improve the resilience of smallholder farmers, who have hitherto depended largely on autonomous adaptation strategies.

中文翻译：

---

感知气候变化和复合压力因素：对印度小农生计风险的影响

微观尺度的观点很少包含在计划的气候变化适应中，但农民的看法可以提供有用的见解，了解气候和其他压力因素之间相互作用对生计的影响。本研究旨在了解气候变化和其他压力因素如何影响印度北方邦东部 Azamgarh 地区小农的生计。来自 84 名小农的数据是使用混合的定性和定量方法收集的，包括访谈和参与式方法，并根据多重压力和可持续生计框架提供信息。结果显示，农民越来越多地面临因下雨天数和持续时间减少以及降雨不规律而引起的问题。季节性周期的异常（夏季更长，冬季更短）似乎已经改变了当地的气候。农民报告说，即使在降雨量适中的年份，反复的干旱影响也会对水稻作物产生不利影响，这对干旱的正式定义提出了挑战。气候变异被确定为首要压力源，通常是生态（例如土壤碱度）、社会经济（例如种植成本上升）和政治（例如政策不匹配和推广系统不完善）压力源的风险乘数。除了气候压力外，资源贫乏的边缘群体尤其因资源管理制度的变化而面临更高的风险。这项研究为重新审视正常降雨量和干旱的正式定义提供了重要线索，适应了农民的看法，即均匀分布的降雨量而非总降雨量是作物产量的关键决定因素。