Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Climate change adaptation: factors influencing Chinese smallholder farmers’ perceived self-efficacy and adaptation intent

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Regional Environmental Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Understanding how individuals perceive their ability to adapt to climate change is critical to understanding adaptation decision-making. Drawing on a survey of 483 smallholder farmer households in the Loess Plateau region of China, we examine the factors that shape smallholder farmer perceptions of their ability to adapt to climate change and their stated intent to do so. We apply a proportional odds ordered logistic regression model to identify the role that determinants of adaptive capacity play in shaping smallholders’ perceived self-efficacy and adaptation intent. Our study provides further evidence that self-efficacy beliefs are a strong, positive predictor of adaptation intent. Our study suggests that human capital, information and technology, material resources and infrastructure, wealth and financial capital, and institutions and entitlements all play an important role in shaping smallholder perceived self-efficacy, while state-society dependencies may reduce smallholder perceived self-efficacy. In addition, our study suggests that perceiving climate change risks and impacts do not necessarily lead to an intention to adapt. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of incorporating both the objective determinants of smallholders’ adaptive capacity and their subjective perceptions of these objective determinants into future climate change adaptation programs and policies in order to facilitate adaptive actions. Identifying factors that cause individuals to have a low estimation of their adaptive ability may allow planned adaptation interventions to address these perceived limitations and encourage adaptive behavior.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 6.47 Chinese Yuan is equal to 1 U.S. dollar.

References

  • Adger WN (2003) Social capital, collective action, and adaptation to climate change. Econ Geogr 79(4):387–404. doi:10.1111/j.1944-8287.2003.tb00220.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Vincent K (2005) Uncertainty in adaptive capacity. CR Geosci 337(4):399–410. doi:10.1016/j.crte.2004.11.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adger WN, Agrawala S, Mirza MMQ et al (2007) Assessment of adaptation practices, options, constraints and capacity. Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter17.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2015

  • Adger WN, Barnett J, Brown K, Marshall N, O’Brien K (2013) Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nat Clim Change 3:112–117. doi:10.1038/nclimate1666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal A, Perrin N (2009) Climate adaptation, local institutions and rural livelihoods. In: Adger WN, Lorenzone I, O’Brien KL (eds) Adapting to climate change: thresholds, values, governance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 350–367

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50(2):179–211. doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbier B, Yacouba H, Karambiri H, Zoromé M, Somé B (2009) Human vulnerability to climate variability in the Sahel: farmers’ adaptation strategies in northern Burkina Faso. Environ Manag 43(5):790–803. doi:10.1007/s00267-008-9237-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett J, Waters E, Pendergast S, Puleston A (2013) Barriers to adaptation to sea-level rise: the legal, institutional and cultural barriers to adaptation to sea-level rise in Australia. National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast

    Google Scholar 

  • Below TB, Mutabazi KD, Kirschke D, Franke C, Sieber S, Siebert R, Tscherning K (2012) Can farmers’ adaptation to climate change be explained by socio-economic household-level variables? Glob Environ Change 22(1):223–235. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.11.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birkenholtz T (2012) Network political ecology: method and theory in climate change vulnerability and adaptation research. Prog Hum Geogr 36(3):295–315. doi:10.1177/0309132511421532

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blennow K, Persson J (2009) Climate change: motivation for taking measure to adapt. Glob Environ Change 19(1):100–104. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.10.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brant R (1990) Assessing proportionality in the proportional odds model for ordinal logistic regression. Biometrics 46(4):1171–1178. doi:10.2307/2532457

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks N, Adger WN (2005) Assessing and enhancing adaptive capacity. In: Lim B, Spanger-Siegfried E (eds) Adaptation policy framework for climate change: developing strategies, policies, and measures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 165–182

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryan E, Ringler C, Okoba B, Roncoli C, Silvestri S, Herrero M (2013) Adapting agriculture to climate change in Kenya: household strategies and determinants. J Environ Manag 114:26–35. doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2012.10.036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham M, Ma Z (2015) Linking smallholder farmer climate change adaptation decisions to development. Clim Dev. doi:10.1080/17565529.2015.1067180

    Google Scholar 

  • Burnham M, Ma Z, Zhu D (2015) The human dimensions of water saving irrigation: lessons learned from Chinese smallholder farmers. Agric Hum Values 32:347–360. doi:10.1007/s10460-014-9565-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham M, Ma Z, Zhang B (2016) Making sense of climate change: hybrid epistemologies, socio-natural assemblages, and smallholder knowledge. Area 48:18–26. doi:10.1111/area.12150

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crate SA (2011) A political ecology of “water in mind”: attributing perceptions in the era of global climate change. Weather Clim Soc 3(3):148–164. doi:10.1175/WCAS-D-10-05006.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach LJ (1951) Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16:297–334. doi:10.1007/BF02310555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deressa TT, Hassan RM, Ringler C (2010) Perception of and adaptation to climate change by farmers in the Nile basin of Ethiopia. J Agric Sci 149(01):23–31. doi:10.1017/S0021859610000687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Didier EA, Brunson MW (2004) Adoption of range management innovations by Utah ranchers. J Range Manag 57(4):330–336. doi:10.2111/1551-5028(2004)057[0330:AORMIB]2.0.CO;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ding Y, Chan JCL (2005) The East Asian summer monsoon: an overview. Meteorol Atmos Phys 89(1–4):117–142. doi:10.1007/s00703-005-0125-z

    Google Scholar 

  • Eakin H, Bojorquez-Tapia LA (2008) Insights into the composition of household vulnerability from multicriteria decision analysis. Glob Environ Change 18(1):112–127. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.09.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eakin H, Lemos MC (2006) Adaptation and the state: Latin America and the challenge of capacity-building under globalization. Glob Environ Change 16(1):7–18. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.10.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Engle NL (2011) Adaptive capacity and its assessment. Glob Environ Change 21(2):647–656. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fishbein M, Ajzen I (1975) Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: an introduction to theory and research. Addison Wesley, Reading

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank E, Eakin H, López-Carr D (2011) Social identity, perception and motivation in adaptation to climate risk in the coffee sector of Chiapas, Mexico. Glob Environ Change 21(1):66–76. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.11.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fullerton AS (2009) A conceptual framework for ordered logistic regression models. Sociol Methods Res 38(2):306–347. doi:10.1177/0049124109346162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gandure S, Walker S, Botha JJ (2013) Farmer’s perceptions of adaptation to climate change and water stress in a South African community. Environ Dev 5:39–53. doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2012.11.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grothmann T, Patt A (2005) Adaptive capacity and human cognition: the process of individual adaptation to climate change. Glob Environ Change 15(3):199–213. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.01.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hageback J, Sundberg J, Ostwald M, Chen D, Yun X, Knutsson P (2005) Climate variability and land-use change in Danangou Watershed, China—examples of small-scale farmers’ adaptation. Clim Change 72(1–2):189–212. doi:10.1007/s10584-005-5384-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harmer N, Rahman S (2014) Climate change response at the farm level: a review of farmers’ awareness and adaptation strategies in developing countries. Geogr Compass 8(11):808–822. doi:10.1111/gec3.12180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hisali E, Birungi P, Buyinza F (2011) Adaptation to climate change in Uganda: evidence from micro level data. Glob Environ Change 21(4):1245–1261. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.07.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones L, Boyd E (2011) Exploring social barriers to adaptation: insights from Western Nepal. Glob Environ Change 21(4):1262–1274. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.06.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaiser HF (1958) The varimax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis. Psychometrika 23(3):187–200. doi:10.1007/BF02289233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein RJT, Midgley GF, Preston BL, Alam M, Berkhout FGH, Dow K, Shaw MR (2014) Adaptation opportunities, constraints, and limits. In: Field CB, Barros VR, Dokken DJ, Mach KJ, Mastrandrea MD, Bilir TE, Chatterjee M, Ebi KL, Estrada YO, Genova RC, Girma B, Kissel ES, Levy AN, MacCracken S, Mastrandrea PR, White LL (eds) Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. part a: global and sectoral aspects. Contribution of working group II to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 899–943

  • Kuruppu N, Liverman D (2011) Mental preparation for climate adaptation: the role of cognition and culture in enhancing adaptive capacity of water management in Kiribati. Glob Environ Change 21(2):657–669. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.12.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leichenko R, O’Brien K (2008) Environmental change and globalization: double exposures. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lemos MC, Agrawal A, Eakin H, Nelson DR, Engle NL, Johns O (2013) Building adaptive capacity to climate change in less developed countries. In: Asrar G, Hurrell J (eds) Climate science for serving society. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 437–457

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Zheng FL, Liu WZ, Flanagan DC (2010) Spatial distribution and temporal trends of extreme temperature and precipitation events on the Loess Plateau of China during 1961–2007. Quat Int 226(1):92–100. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.03.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Z, Zheng FL, Liu WZ (2012) Spatiotemporal characteristics of reference evapotranspiration during 1961–2009 and its projected changes during 2011–2099 on the Loess Plateau of China. Agric For Meteorol 154–155:147–155. doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.10.019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li Y, Conway D, Wu Y, Gao Q, Rothausen S, Xiong W, Ju H, Lin E (2013) Rural livelihoods and climate variability in Ningxia, Northwest China. Clim Change 119(3–4):891–904. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-0765-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liska AE (1984) A critical examination of the causal structure of the Fishbein/Ajzen attitude-behavior model. Soc Psychol Q 47(1):61–74. doi:10.2307/3033889

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu L, Liu Z, Ren X, Fischer T, Xu Y (2011) Hydrological impacts of climate change in the Yellow River Basin for the 21st century using hydrological model and statistical downscaling model. Quat Int 244(2):211–220. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2010.12.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo AY (2013) The role of social norms in climate adaptation: mediating risk perception and flood insurance purchase. Glob Environ Change 23(5):1249–1257. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.07.019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long JS (1997) Regression models for categorical and limited dependent variables. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Long JS, Freese J (2006) Regression models for categorical dependent variables using Stata. Stata Press Books, College Station

    Google Scholar 

  • Mertz O, Mbow C, Maiga A, Diallo D, Reenberg A, Diouf A, Barbier B et al (2010) Climate factors play a limited role for past adaptation strategies in West Africa. Ecol Soc 15(4):1–15. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art25/

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morton JF (2007) The impact of climate change on smallholder and subsistence agriculture. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104(50):19680–19685. doi:10.1073/pnas.0701855104

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Moser S, Ekstrom J (2010) A framework to diagnose barriers to climate change adaptation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107(51):1–6. doi:10.1073/pnas.1007887107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noy C (2008) Sampling knowledge: the hermeneutics of snowball sampling in qualitative research. Int J Soc Res Methodol 11:327–344. doi:10.1080/13645570701401305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunnally JC (1978) Psychometric theory, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ostwald M, Chen D (2006) Land-use change: impacts of climate variations and policies among small-scale farmers in the Loess Plateau, China. Land Use Policy 23(4):361–371. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2005.04.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panda A, Sharma U, Ninan KN, Patt A (2013) Adaptive capacity contributing to improved agricultural productivity at the household level: empirical findings highlighting the importance of crop insurance. Glob Environ Change 23(4):782–790. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.03.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patt AG, Schröter D (2008) Perceptions of climate risk in Mozambique: implications for the success of adaptation strategies. Glob Environ Change 18(3):458–467. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.04.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelling M, High C (2005) Understanding adaptation: what can social capital offer assessments of adaptive capacity? Glob Environ Change 15(4):308–319. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2005.02.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piao S, Ciais P, Huang Y, Shen Z, Peng S, Li J, Zhou L et al (2010) The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China. Nature 467:43–51. doi:10.1038/nature09364

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Piya L, Maharjan KL, Joshi NP (2012) Determinants of adaptation practices to climate change by Chepang households in the rural Mid-Hills of Nepal. Reg Environ Change 13(2):437–447. doi:10.1007/s10113-012-0359-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ribot J (2009) Vulnerability does not fall from the sky: towards multiscale, pro-poor climate policy. In: Mearns R, Norton A (eds) The social dimensions of climate change: equity and vulnerability in a warming world. World Bank Publications, Washington, pp 47–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Rifaat SM, Tay R, de Barros A (2012) Severity of motorcycle crashes in Calgary. Accid Anal Prev 49:44–49. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2011.02.025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saldaña-Zorrilla SO (2008) Stakeholders’ views in reducing rural vulnerability to natural disasters in southern Mexico: hazard exposure and coping and adaptive capacity. Glob Environ Change 18(4):583–597. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.09.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smit B, Pilifosova O (2001) Adaptation to climate change in the context of sustainable development and equity. In: IPCC Working Group II (eds) Climate change 2001: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Earth Scan, Geneva, pp 879–906

  • Tambo JA, Abdoulaye T (2013) Smallholder perceptions of and adaptations to climate change in the Nigerian Savanna. Reg Environ Change 13(2):375–388. doi:10.1007/s10113-012-0351-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas DSG, Twyman C, Osbahr H, Hewitson B (2007) Adaptation to climate change and variability: farmer responses to intra-seasonal precipitation trends in South Africa. Clim Change 83(3):301–322. doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9205-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tremblay MA (1957) The key informant technique: a non-ethnographic application. Am Anthropol 59(4):688–701. doi:10.1525/aa.1957.59.4.02a00100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Triandis HC (1977) Interpersonal behavior. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Monterey

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker CM, Eakin H, Castellanos EJ (2010) Perceptions of risk and adaptation: coffee producers, market shocks, and extreme weather in Central America and Mexico. Glob Environ Change 20:23–32. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2009.07.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner BL, Kasperson RE, Matson PA, McCarthy JJ, Corell RW, Christensen L, Eckley N et al (2003) A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100(14):8074–8079. doi:10.1073/pnas.1231335100

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Zhang Z (2011) Effects of climate change on water resources in China. Clim Res 47:77–82. doi:10.3354/cr00965

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wang J, Brown DG, Agrawal A (2013) Climate adaptation, local institutions, and rural livelihoods: a comparative study of herder communities in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China. Glob Environ Change 23(6):1673–1683. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.08.014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb TL, Sheeran P (2005) Integrating concepts from goal theories to understand the achievement of personal goals. Eur J Soc Psychol 35(1):69–96. doi:10.1002/ejsp.233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb TL, Sheeran P (2006) Does changing behavioral intentions engender behavior change? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychol Bull 132(2):249–268. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf J, Allice I, Bell T (2013) Values, climate change, and implications for adaptation: evidence from two communities in Labrador, Canada. Glob Environ Change 23(2):548–562. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2012.11.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu W, Verburg PH, Tang H (2013) Climate change and the food production system: impacts and adaptation in China. Reg Environ Change 14(1):1–5. doi:10.1007/s10113-013-0528-1

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yohe G, Tol RS (2002) Indicators for social and economic coping capacity-moving toward a working definition of adaptive capacity. Glob Environ Change 12(1):25–40. doi:10.1016/S0959-3780(01)00026-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young G, Zavala H, Wandel J, Smit B, Salas S, Jimenez E, Fiebig M et al (2009) Vulnerability and adaptation in a dryland community of the Elqui Valley, Chile. Clim Change 98(1–2):245–276. doi:10.1007/s10584-009-9665-4

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B, Wu P, Zhao X, Wang Y, Wang J, Shi Y (2012) Drought variation trends in different subregions of the Chinese Loess Plateau over the past four decades. Agric Water Manag 115:167–177. doi:10.1016/j.agwat.2012.09.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang B, Wu P, Zhao X, Gao X (2013) Spatiotemporal analysis of climate variability (1971–2010) in spring and summer on the Loess Plateau, China. Hydrol Process 28(4):1689–1702. doi:10.1002/hyp.9724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao G, Mu X, Wen Z, Wang F, Gao P (2013) Soil erosion, conservation, and eco-environment changes in the Loess Plateau of China. Land Degrad Dev 24(5):499–510. doi:10.1002/ldr.2246

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was partially funded by Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University (NWAFU) through the 111 project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. B12007). The authors are grateful to Drs. Pute Wu, Delan Zhu, Youke Wang, Xining Zhao, Xiping Liu, Yubao Wang from NWAFU for their support for this research. The authors also thank Chunyan Qi, Mengying Sun, and several other NWAFU undergraduate and graduate students for their assistance during fieldwork. Finally, we would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments, which significantly strengthened the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 106 Marshall Hall, 1 Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY, 13210, USA

    Morey Burnham

  2. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 195 Marsteller Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Zhao Ma

Authors
  1. Morey Burnham
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhao Ma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morey Burnham.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Editor: Erica Smithwick.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Burnham, M., Ma, Z. Climate change adaptation: factors influencing Chinese smallholder farmers’ perceived self-efficacy and adaptation intent. Reg Environ Change 17, 171–186 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-0975-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-0975-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation