Awareness of Agricultural Extension Officers on the Climate Change and its impact on the Paddy Sector in Sri Lanka

Climate change (CC) is reaching a catastrophic level during the 21st century and the farmers in developing countries are believed to be severely affected within the next few decades. Although the impact of CC on agriculture is slow, it has already started to affect the agriculture sector. For example by 2050, the paddy yield is expected to reduce by 20% in Sri Lanka. The agricultural scientists, especially those working on paddy, are making some progress in developing innovations to withstand the adverse effects of CC and the Agricultural Extension service has a responsibility to assist the farmers to adopt such technologies. The objectives of the study were; i) to assess the awareness of the Sri Lankan extension workers on the important issues related to CC and the innovations that could be adopted by farmers to mitigate the adverse impacts of CC on the paddy cultivation, ii) to find out the major factors affecting their awareness on CC and, iii) to make a preliminary assessment of the contribution of mass media to create awareness on CC by a content analysis. The data were collected by a questionnaire survey from 30 Agricultural Instructors (AIs) and Subject Matter Officers (SMOs) (out of a total population of 117) and 30 Agricultural Research and Production Assistants (ARPAs) who are considered as part-time village level extension workers in the Kurunegala district located in the North-Western Province which is predominantly an agricultural area having a high climatic diversity. All the AIs and SMOs had a Diploma or a Degree in Agriculture and only 10% of ARPAs had studied up to that level. Comparatively a high number of respondents (32%) were aware of the causes of climate change than its overall effects (23%) and specific effects on agriculture (22%). The AI and SMOs also had a significantly higher level of awareness on climate change compared to the ARPAs. The climate change awareness however, was not significantly related to age and experience of the respondents. But, the education level, the number of training programs attended and the time spent on reading newspapers showed a significant positive relationship with the CC awareness. The coverage of CC in two leading national newspapers during the last two years was studied by a content analysis. There were only 75 articles in 1730 English newspapers and 94 articles in 2380 Sinhala newspapers published during this period. It is recommended to conduct more training programs for the extension officers to impart knowledge and understanding on climate change. Mass media also should play a more significant role to enhance the awareness and to face the future challenges of climate change.