Assessing the socio-economic impact of Climate Change on rural farmers in District Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Keywords:
Climate Change, Rural Farmers, Livelihood, Food Insecurity, Poverty, Agriculture, UnemploymentAbstract
Climate change is increasingly recognized as a socio-economic stressor, particularly for smallholder farming communities whose livelihoods depend directly on natural resources. This study examined the socio-economic effects of climate change on farmers in District Kohat. Using a cross-sectional research design, data were collected from farming households and analyzed through descriptive statistics and bivariate Tau-C correlation analysis. Inferential analysis revealed statistically significant associations between climate change and socio-economic well-being across all tested variables (p < 0.000). A strong relationship was found between climate change and household food insecurity (Tau-C = 0.329, p < 0.000), followed by income loss due to crop failure (Tau-C = 0.310, p < 0.000) and rising poverty levels among farmers (Tau-C = 0.289, p < 0.000). Agricultural productivity (Tau-C = 0.283, p < 0.000) and government support inadequacy (Tau-C = 0.223, p < 0.000) also showed significant associations with socio-economic impact. These findings demonstrate that climate change is a compounding socio-economic stressor affecting income, food access, and employment patterns among rural farming households in Kohat. The government needs to create agricultural input schemes to help lower the financial burden on farmers in rural areas, resulting from the increasing cost of farm inputs caused by climate change.
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