The Role of Cultural Factors in Supporting Policies to Adapt to Climate Change by Farmers Case Study: Babolsar city

Extended Abstract
Introduction
Climate change is a phenomenon that rapidly occurring and the necessity to adapt it
are crucial. Knowledge of climate change and the certainty of its occurrence are
critical to the empowerment of vulnerable groups towards its outcome. Taking a
scientific and proper approach to deal with the issue of global climate change (GCG)
requires awareness towards this phenomenon which helps to make a proper and
applicable policy. In other words, to address CC issues like environmental risks we
need to understand the causes, consequences and potential solutions to CC. Because,
environmental issues of the early twenty first century are characterized by a high
level of scientific and technical complexity, good citizens needs to be well informed
and more accurate on decisions about scientific issues. Therefore, by arising
knowledge of CC, individual behavioral changes directed towards combating the
problem can be engendered. In recent years, many researchers have examined public
knowledge of the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. This field of study seems
very new and the CC issue seems under studied. This means public's understanding
of CC has not been determined and there is no information about people attitudes
and behavior toward CC issue. Iran is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol and
according to this treaty; she is obliged to implement mitigation and adaptation 
policies to reduce greenhouse gas. Performance indicators reported by the German
Institute for Climate Watch in 2011 suggests that Iran was allocated rank 52 of the
60 positions to its ranking which suggests that it dropped 14 steps lower than the
previous period based on the performance index of climate change. According to
enactment the rules of procedure adopted Convention on Climate Change and the
Kyoto Protocol in July 2009 by cabinet and the National Climate Change Committee
and the Secretariat related it in Environmental Protection Agency’ Iran, it seems Iran
gets better grades in terms of reducing carbon emissions. The purpose of this study
is to analysis the role of knowledge and belief in forming farmers’ support towards
climate change adaptation policies in agriculture.
Methodology
The present study utilized survey method and the main tool for data collection was
questionnaire. Given that the main focus of study is assessing farmers’ knowledge,
the unit of analysis in this study is farmers and level of analysis is micro. To this
end, total population was 7861 of farmers’ Babolsar that using multi-stage cluster
sampling, 140 were selected as samples. A total of 140 farmers were interviewed
face to face, using questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of 64 questions. The
questions were either open ended or in multiple choice format. The rate of validity’
questions were higher than 60 percent. 3 hypotheses were examined. Data entry,
editating and final processing was performed by applying software SPSS. The initial
analysis showed that the dependent variable did have a normal distribution and we
utilized parametric test (e.g. Pearson correlation coefficient, Regression model) for
hypothesis testing accordingly.
Findings
The findings show that knowledge of climate change and belief in the occurrence
and level of supporting the policies is rather moderate, declined to high. Based on
regression analysis, the average agricultural land and a belief in the occurrence of
climate change, were the most important factors affecting policies supports. In 
contrast, the age and knowledge of climate change showed no effect on supporting
climate change policies.
Discussion
The results of this study showed that knowledge does not necessarily lead to
supporting climate change policies. Belief in climate change played a major role in
creating incentives to tackle climate change. In fact, those villagers who believe
climate change is happening and that human activity is the main source of climate
change, they expressed greater willingness to undertake collective action to support
adaptation and mitigation policies. Based on the above results, the following can be
presented as research suggestions.
• Improvement of extension services in the rural region, to improve knowledge and
skills of farmers on climate change adaptation strategies and familiarizing them with
the basic elements of successful implementation of policies to tackle climate change.
• Government agencies and non-governmental reports should be available to
scholars in order to properly analyze the current situation. In addition, we need
organizations that are involved in climate change education and take responsibility
to provide the information about factors and consequences of climate change.
• Projections of economic, social and cultural consequences of climate change for
rural communities is needed and this needs to be done by experts so that they can
respond more effectively to global warming. In this context, one of the most
consistent programs is sustainable agriculture that farmers should be given the
necessary training.
• Providing mental and financial support and empowering farmers by the respective
institutions makes farmers to have choices for changing product strategies and
managing resources (water, soil and inputs) to tackle climate change.