Coping with climate change in agriculture: Evidence from Hamadan-Bahar in Iran

The present study evaluated the potential impacts of climate change of Hamadan-Bahar plain on dimensions including economical, physiological, hydrological and meteorological aspects. The results showed that climate change in the region has negative impacts on the agricultural sector by reducing the crop yield as well as groundwater balance. In the most optimistic scenario on the horizon of 2090, rainfall and groundwater levels would reduce by 14.4 and 12.3 %, respectively and the average temperature would rise by 14.7 %. Accordingly, the economic value of water would increase by 44 % and the agricultural value-added (net income) would fall by 19 %, indicating the intensification of water shortage crisis and agricultural recession. Also, the results of this study show that optimal deficit irrigation strategy in the production of water intensive crops as well as improving irrigation technologies would be potential solutions to the climate change crisis in the coming years. However, the common pool nature of groundwater resources in addition to capital inadequacy are the challenges faced when adopting these two approaches by farmers.