Small Farmers, Big Climate Constraints
Climate Change is a big challenge to the global environment and the economy. Nepal has identified climate change as a crosscutting issue by virtue of its nature and impacts. Despite nominal greenhouse gas emission of about 0.025 percent (NAPA/MOE, 2010), Nepal is listed as country at extreme risk to the impacts of climate change (CCVI, 2014). The underlying fact that makes Nepal fall in the vulnerable category is its geographical area stretched over tropical, temperate and alpine regions. The other factor attributing to Nepal’s vulnerability is its low development status. Lack of livelihood diversification opportunities due to poor resilience and low adaptive capacity exacerbates Nepal’s vulnerability and puts majority of its population under the risk of climate change impacts. Nepal is home to predominantly rural population. Agriculture is the mainstay of Nepalese economy, employing two-third of the country’s labor force and contributes over one-third in the national GDP. Almost t...