Abstract
Agriculture is the sector most vulnerable to climate change due to its high dependence on climate and weather conditions. Climate change is a main challenge for agriculture, food security and rural livelihoods for millions of people in India. Among India’s population of more than one billion people, about 68% are directly or indirectly involved in the agricultural sector. This sector is particularly vulnerable to present-day climate variability. In this paper an attempt is made to map and analyze the vulnerability to climate change in different districts of south Indian states of Kerala. We have taken five sources of vulnerability indicators: socio-demographic, climatic, agricultural, occupational and common property resources vulnerabilities to compute the composite vulnerability index. The composite vulnerability index suggests that, Kasaragod and Waynad districts are the most vulnerable districts of Kerala, whereas Kottayam is the least vulnerable district. The study aims to bring an outline of different socio economic factors/indicators which are affected by climate change, vulnerability across Wayanad District in Kerala. The purpose of the study is to get people’s perception on the climate change and the factors which affected climate change in Wayanad. Also the study brings out the hidden and in-depth factors which have caused and resulted in climate change. The analysis is based on the Secondary and primary data through a questionnaire from a sample households of 100 as well as through FGD, personal interviews and observation method. The study highlights that the vulnerability of the study region to climate change is not concentrated to physical or geographical factors alone, but mostly to the socio-economic factors like lack of access to education, health care, limited livelihood opportunities, limited resources, etc. People consider that these non-climatic factors act as barriers for them to overcome poverty, contribute to their weak resilience, and make it extremely difficult for them to manage the risk posed by climate change. The study therefore suggests that it is of utmost importance that the interventions are planned in ways that address the multidimensional poverty in the region which in turn will enhance community’s inherent capacity to adapt to current as well as future climate risk.
Key words: Vulnerability, agriculture, climate change
JEL Classification: Q 54, I31, H84

Lecturer
Sushanta Mahapatra
University of Bologna, Italy and Amrita School of Business, Amrita University, Kochi, India