Adaptation strategies and limitations towards climate change among Date farmers in the southeast region of Iran

Introduction
Climate change is an important factor in the instability of rural people's livelihood and can double their vulnerability. Villagers and nomads are the most vulnerable to climate change due to their high dependence on the environment. Meanwhile, Smallholder agricultural activities among local communities are the most dependent on the climate and the most vulnerable to climate changes and shocks. Therefore, local agricultural communities have become the main focus of political discussions and research projects about climate change. It is possible to reduce the vulnerability of climate change and the resulting increase in risk through the process of adaptation. Therefore, adapting to climate change has become an effective solution and the best choice for reducing the adverse effects of climate change and reducing the vulnerability of natural and human social systems. Adaptation is the choice of a policy to reduce the harmful effects of climate change on production.  Adaptation to climate change may minimize its harmful effects, support the livelihoods of poor farmers, and enhance all possible benefits that a farmer is likely to enjoy. Success in designing and implementing adaptation strategies in response to climate change is primarily dependent on the understanding and capacity of local communities to adapt to climate change. Because local communities are the most important tools available to reduce vulnerability from climate change. Effective adaptation can increase the flexibility of the agricultural sector and the level of assurance of food security against climate change; But farmers are usually not successful in adaptation due to a wide range of limitations.
Methodology
The present research has investigated the challenges and obstacles of date farmers' adaptation to climate change in the rural regions of southeast of Iran. Due to the extensive dependence of this region on the date crop, date farmers have been selected as the statistical sample of this research. About 300 microdata were collected at farm level in direct cooperation with the date palm farmers. A simple random sampling method was used to select the respondents. In general, 4% of the total population and more than 20% of the number of households are considered for the survey. The data of this study have been collected through a systematic interview program to address research questions, including questions related to different dimensions of adaptation potential for climate change adaptation strategies and social and economic characteristics of farmer households. A two-part questionnaire including 50 questions about adaptation strategies against climate change (23 questions) and adaptation limitations (27 questions), was prepared and validated through the expert community and its reliability was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this research, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the assumption of normality of the research data. In the following, to analyze the questionnaire data, the method of structural equations was used in LISREL software.
Findings
In terms of personal, social and economic characteristics, most of the respondents were male, married and had a low level of education. Despite the fact that most of the farmers own land, traditional agriculture is widespread and the income from it is not economical. The results of the analysis of climate change adaptation strategies showed that local knowledge and experience, participation in voluntary activities, job diversity, reduction of investment in agriculture and cooperation with government institutions have been effective in reducing the risks caused by climate change. Gender, marital status, education status, place of residence and main job are influential in choosing adaptation strategies. The most important limitations of adaptation to climate change include low level of knowledge, lack of job diversity, financial inability and lack of access to agricultural inputs.
Discussion and Conclusion
The results of the research have shown that the farmers have a good understanding of the climate changes in the study area and have relatively favorable adaptation. Economic strategies (with an effect coefficient of 0.927), socio-cultural strategies (with an effect coefficient of 0.915), managerial strategies (with an effect coefficient of 0.895) and knowledge-educational strategies (with an effect coefficient of 0.874) are the most important adaptation strategies of agricultural societies against climate change have been respectively. The challenges and limitations of adapting to climate change are also based on importance, including management limitations (with an average of 4.09), infrastructural-physical limitations (with an average of 3.86), social and cultural limitations (with an average of 3.74), economic (with an average of 3.69) and academic-educational (with an average of 3.48). This study recommends that governments should develop the necessary tools and facilities to facilitate adaptation to climate change among local communities and increase farmers' understanding of climate change and adaptation strategies. The results of this investment can directly include the increase in product production, income and stability of rural communities and indirectly lead to the security of border areas.