Investigating the Factors Influencing the Behavior of Wheat Growers in Kermanshah County toward Adaptation to Climate Change

The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable to climate change, so that this change is considered a serious threat to the agricultural sector. Considering that the increasing importance of farmers' adaptation to these changes and their adverse effects, the need to study the factors influencing adaptation behavior with climate change is becoming more and more important. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing the behavior of wheat growers in Kermanshah County toward adaptation to climate change. The study population is all wheat growers' of Kermanshah County (N=30000). A statistical sample is 380 Wheat growers' that are determined by Krejcie and Morgan table. A Multi-Stage Random Sampling is used to select the samples. The data gathering tool is a researcher-made questionnaire, whose face validity is confirmed by two faculty members of Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan and one member of the faculty of Environmental Sciences Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University. The reliability of the main scales of the questionnaires is examined by Cronbach Alpha coefficients, which ranged from 0.72 to 0.89, indicating the tool of study is reliable. The results indicate a significant positive correlation between risk perception, belief in climate change and trust in government institutions with variable growers' adaptation behavior. This means that increasing the variables of perception of risk perception, belief in climate change and trust in government institutions will increase the growers' adaptation behavior. Besides, the results show that the variables of belief in climate change, risk perception, trust in government institutions and trust in experts has effects on adaptation behaviors of climate change. Finally, based on research findings, some suggestions are presented to increase the adaptability of farmers.