Farmers Preferred Information Sources Regarding Climate Change Awareness in Mountainous Areas of Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Climate change is one of the key challenges having adverse impacts on agriculture, which is the key source of food and livelihood. Information is a critical component in the process of climate risk management. Therefore, this study was conducted in mountainous areas of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to explore the preferred information sources of the farmers to cope the climate change. A total of 384 farmers were interviewed face to face on a structured interview schedule from District Rawalpindi of Punjab and Mansehra of KPK. Collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results indicated that farmers had more reliance on electronic media gadgets for information seeking as least on social media gadgets. Fellow farmers and extension field staff were also rated as the preferred information sources of the farmers. This was deduced that farmers were emphasizing n traditional sources rather than modern tools of communication like social media. There is a need to promote the use of social media tools for information sharing for climate change awareness. Social media tools have the potential to meet the information needs of the farmers and have diverse contents to disseminate about climate change. Extension field staff should use social media gadgets for information dissemination among the farmers.