Farm-level cost of adaptation and expected cost of uncertainty associated with climate change impacts in major river basins in India

Purpose – Researchers and policymakers are figuring out the adaptation technologies to cope with the changing climate. Adaptation strategies for crop production followed by the farmers at selected study locations had ranged from 6-30 per cent only, and this was mainly due to lack of awareness about the actual cost associated with adaptation and non-adaptation of these strategies. Design/methodology/approach – Hence, this study aims to address the cost of adaptation for rice using joint probability distribution of rainfall and crop prices. Findings – Cost of adaptation varied from INR2,389 to 4,395/ha for System of Rice Intensification (SRI); INR646 to 1,121/ha for alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and INR8,144 to 8,677/ha for well irrigation (WI), whereas expected cost for not using these technologies has ranged from INR6,976 to 9,172/ha for SRI; INR4,123 7,764/ha for AWD and INR10,825 to 17,270/ha for WI. Hence, promotion of the adaptation technologies itself will minimize the income losses to the farme...