Assessment of Agricultural Vulnerability to Climate Change in Manipur: A District Level Analysis

Abstract

Climate-change vulnerability profiles are developed at the district level of Manipur by constructing a vulnerability index. The index was based on several sets of indicators and each indicator was aggregated to obtain normalised score or vulnerability index. The normalised vulnerability indices were categorized across vulnerability classes viz. less vulnerable, moderately vulnerable and highly vulnerable. Results indicate that most of the hill districts fell in the highly vulnerable category except Senapati and Ukhrul, which were moderately vulnerable districts. The hill districts were found to be more vulnerable in comparison to valley districts. Mean annual rainfall and mean annual maximum temperature were positively related with vulnerability while mean annual minimum temperature, per cent of gross irrigated to gross area sown, per cent of small farmers and per cent of small female farmers, population density, literacy rate, cropping intensity, livestock density and fertilizer consumption per unit gross cropped area were negatively related with vulnerability in which gross irrigated area, small farmers, small female farmers, population density and cropping intensity are significant. The assessment and identification of vulnerable districts would assist the planners, decision-makers and development agencies to identify the most vulnerable regions for adaptation interventions in the state.