Assessment of the adaptation capacity of famers to climate change and limiting factor analysis: A survey in a typical agricultural area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Adapting to climate change has become the norm for sustainable development in the context of global change. Farmers are the main basic unit of production in rural areas. Through diagnostic research on the assessment of farmers' adaptation ability to climate change and its limiting factors, the effectiveness of farmers' adaptation and their adaptation ability can be enhanced. Taking 14 administrative villages in the Middle-Lower Huangshui Area of the Tibetan Plateau as a case study, an index system for assessing the adaptation ability of farmers to climate change, based on household survey data, was constructed. The adaptive capacity index model was applied to quantitatively evaluate farmers' adaptability to climate change, with the main restrictive factors of each adaptive capacity area diagnosed and analyzed through the obstacle model. The conclusions showed that 1) farmers in the Middle-Lower Huangshui Area have a more accurate perception of climate change. 2) Adaptability is in a high state, with farmers who have the ability of 0.280 ≤ ACI (adaptive capacity index) < 0.320 are the main body. In this area, from east to west, there is a downward trend of the sample village farmers’ adaptability with altitude. 3) The dimension layer shows that natural ability and economic capacity have a major effect on farmers' adaptability. The indicator layer highlights that the quality of cultivated land, diversity of economic income, methods for obtaining financial assistance, annual income of the family, education level of the labor force, and shortage of crop water are the main limiting factors. 4) The core factor of the adaptability of farmers in the downstream areas of the Middle-Lower Huangshui Area is the annual income of the farmers.