Abstract

Climate has been recognized as a principal factor that control crop distribution and growth. Agricultural productivity has been found to be exaggerated by climate change, this will results food insecurity and poverty. To find out an alternative food source is very much necessary for the existence of life in such climate change related catastrophic events. This study examines selected meteorological conditions of Kottayam district, especially inter-annual and inter-seasonal trends from a climate change perspective and also reviewed the famer’s perception, tubers as a better resilient crop under extreme weather events on regional basis and their promotion need to be emphasized in a better manner. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select 130 tubers cultivating farmers especially cassava, using extensive field visit and structural questionnaire the data were collected. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency table, percentage, mean and chi-square test. The results of the study revealed that climate change was happened on regional basis. The result also highlights the sensitive nature of our staple food crop towards the climate change and hence causes food insecurity related problems. A shift in cultivation trends were also noticed i.e. most of the farmers engaged in rice production now opt tuber, vegetable and other cash crops for cultivation on an extensive basis. Emergences of more tuber cultivation incidence were reported. Cassava and other tubers showed more resilience under climate change events and was found to be sustainable on production and economy basis. The study concluded that the viable and cheap alternatives are the ever resilient tubers.

Keywords: Climate change; Agriculture; Tuber crops; Cassava