Climate Change and Natural Capital: Some Veiled Issues on Sustainable Livelihood in Agriculture Sector

Abstract

Natural capital refers to the planet’s stocks of water, land, air, and renewable and non-renewable resources (such as plant and animal species, forests, and minerals). It accounts for vital information regarding economic dependence and impact on natural world. Governments and businesses face the challenges of extracting the most from these scarce resources. Climate change, natural capital and economies have impact on each other. Economic activity drives climate change but both affect natural capital stock. We should calculate the economic cost of these services if we had to provide them ourselves. Many non-material benefits, such as spiritual or aesthetic enjoyment are also obtained from nature apart from food, fibre and fuel. Thus, it is necessary to understand the consequences of any climate change strategy on other dimensions of human well-being. Moreover, it also affects to livelihood. Agriculture is the main livelihood of Odisha. Every year it is affected by flood, drought, early/late arrival of monsoon, etc. As agriculture is highly dependent on climatic variations, sustainability of agriculture is a matter of question due to increased agricultural uncertainty. Therefore, food security poses a challenge to the world. Climate change is projected to have significant impacts on agricultural conditions, food supply and food security. The present research focuses on different practices for sustainable agriculture with respect to land, water, vegetation, farm animals and labour as a whole. A multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted for the collection of primary data. Test of significance of proportion has been adopted for drawing valid statistical inferences about the population parameters. It is found that there is no significant difference in proportion between the respondents over selection of right crop for the soil, maintaining optimal cropping intensity, rain water conservation, regular cleaning of channels, keeping birds, providing animal health check up. This paper concludes with the suggestions dealing with broad findings, inferences and broad outline of the strategy of fiscal policy, alternative choice of technology, regional subsidies, farmers compensation, public policy response in tariff structure as important factors for maintaining sustainable livelihood in agriculture.