Impact of Climate Variability on Paddy Productivity in Shaba Gewog, Paro

Sonam Norbu & Sonam Tashi

ABSTRACT

Rainfall fluctuations are largely random with no systematic change detectable on either annual or monthly scale. Inadequate rainfall during the growing season and heavy rainfall during harvest season reduce rice yield. This paper aimed to analyze the impacts of climate variability on paddy productivity based on questionnaire survey, data on paddy yield and meteorological data for the last 15 years,. Eighty representative households were randomly selected from a total of 265 farming households growing paddy in Shaba Gewog, Paro. Result showed that 48.8% of the farmers were aware of the climate change issues while 51.2% of farmers were not. About 25% of the respondents felt the need to shift paddy cropping calendar so that it is not affected by rain during harvest. Pearson’s correlation coefficient on paddy yield and climate variability result showed that temperature (T Max) had positive correlation with paddy yield (r = .149, P = .596). The mean rainfall in October month also showed negative correlation with paddy yield (r = -.381, P = .161). The result showed that at the study site the differences in rainfall and temperature during paddy harvest season did not impact yield. About 7.5% of the respondents practiced climate change adaption techniques such as shifting of cropping calendar and change of rice variety. Reason for not adopting climate change adaptation practices was lack of awareness program in the gewog (73.8%). Majority of the farmers (97.5%) have not received any training on climate change impacts on agriculture. This study recommends capacity building programs to adopt adaptation and mitigation strategies in order to combat climate change impacts on agriculture.

Keywords: Climate change, Impacts, Paddy yield, Rainfall, Temperature

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