Background/Objectives: Climate change has profound impacts on Himalayas, non availability of both data and models to estimate its impacts was a major problem. Therefore, apart from key climate variables, farmer's perceptions in mitigating the climate change formed the major source of information and objective of the current study.
Methods/Statistical analysis: The study is based on both primary and secondary data collected from 270 respondents during 2013-14 and 2014-15 spread over north, central and south Kashmir which was further classified into low to mid (L-M) and mid to high (M-H) altitudes. Group discussions/interactions in each selected village between the farmers, scientists and experts from concerned departments formed an important part of the survey. Averages and percentages were worked out to analyse the data.
Results: The rise in temperature was prominent in first and last quarters of the year. This trend seemed to help the temperate mountain farming scenario owing to extended summers favouring increased cropping intensity and adopting advanced technological mix in the study area. This was supported by the introduction of paddy cultivation in southern elevations of Kulgam district, being only a dream a few years before. The annual averages revealed a considerable decrease in the day-1 rainfall (-19.44%) and average number of rainy days month-1 (-24.10%) during period-I over period-II. The variation in the magnitude in different quarters, revealed steeper decrease in winter season (Oct-Dec and Jan-Mar) compared to summer season (Apr-Sep). Important and unambiguous perceptions about climate change perceived by the farmers were increased temperature, long summers, short winters, less snowfall and highly uncertain weather conditions, which triggered since late 1990s. These perceptions are in conformity with the inferences drawn from dynamics of temperature and rainfall during last three decades (170 words).
Conclusion: The study concludes that climate change has initiated in this region which is supported by macroevidences, demanding a serious effort for its mitigation through awareness programmes designed as per farmer's perceptions for better pay-off in long run.