Investigating Factors Affecting Adaptation Behaviors of Farmers with Climate Change in Zanjan Province

Abstract
Climate change has had a significant impact on agriculture, and farmers are reacting differently. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study is to identify the Adaptation strategies used and the factors affecting farmers' behavior in this area.
 
The statistical population of this apllied-correlational study consisted of all farmers of Zanjan province who 393 were selected by using Krejcie and Morgan sampling table and were selected through a multi-stage randomized sampling method.
 
The results showed that farmer's use of 14 adaptation strategies was above average and in other 15 strategies was below average and 79.1% of farmers had used adaptation strategies on average. Correlation coefficient showed that climate perception, training attendance, adaptation knowledge, access to credit, non-agricultural income, agricultural income, rainfed land area, irrigated land area, access to inputs, use of information resources, social capital, soil quality of farm, farm expericne, household size and exposure to climate change had positive and significant relationship with farmers' adaptation strategies. Multiple linear regression showed that access to inputs, use of information resources, irrigated land area, social capital, training attendance, exposure to climate change and rainfed land area explainded 51.4% of the variance of farmers' adaptation behavior.
 
This study showed that the higher the human, social, and physical capital of farmers, and the more they have been affected by climate change in recent years, the more they use adaptation strategies. It is suggested that more planning be done to increase the human and social capital of farmers, as well as to inform farmers about the long-term effects of climate change on the agricultural sector.