Farmers’ beliefs and concerns about climate change, and their adaptation behavior to combat climate change in Saudi Arabia

expand their geographical ranges and by altering their interactions with their hosts [65–70]. An increase in crop diseases would cause significant losses both in production and quality of the produce [71]. All these factors in combination pose a serious threat to the food security of many nations, especially developing countries and with poor natural resources base. Similar findings were reported by Alotaibi et al. [54] in Jazan and Al-Mutairi et al [41] in Tabuk region in Saudi Arabia. However, the farmers of the current study were not concerned about flooding and saturated soils at their farms. It may be because of relatively row rainfall in the Eastern Province as compared to Jazan region. These findings are also consistent with the studies of Mase et al. [72] and Grimberg et al. [73] in USA and Orduño et al. [74] in Mexico, which reported that farmers of both USA and Mexico were concerned about drought, floods, insects, pests, and crop diseases. The results of non-parametric tests show that demographic characteristics do not signifi- cantly influence farmers’ beliefs about climate change and their concerns about the potential impacts of climate change. This suggests that regardless of the demographic differences, farm- ers equally believe that climate change is happening and the human-induced changes are the main driver behind climate change. Moreover, their higher level of concerns suggests that they are equally exposed to various risks associated with the potential impacts of climate change. It

may serve as a motivational factor for the farming community to undertake climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in order to reduce risks attached with the bad impacts of climate change. The farmers who hold the belief that climate change is happening and is a real threat to humankind are more likely to undertake certain actions to adapt to it and reverse its causes [40,54]. However, several past studies suggest that demographic, socioeconomic, and institutional characteristics possessed by the individuals can play a significant role in affecting their con- cerns about the impacts of climate change [75–78]. Some studies reported significant differ- ences in farmers’ climate change beliefs due to their membership of agricultural cooperatives, access to loans [54], access to extension services [54,79–81], soil fertility [54,79,80], age [54,82], and farm size [54,81,83]. Ado et al. [84] however found no significant differences in farmers’ beliefs due to membership of agricultural cooperatives. Significant differences in farmers con- cerns were also found in some studies due to their access to loans [54,79,85]. Heath and Gif- ford, [86] reported a positive relationship between level of education and concerns. However, Kellstedt et al, [87] found no relationship between these two variables. Several studies also report negative or no relationship of the age with the level of concerns [88–91]. Climate change adaptation and mitigation are two different processes: adaptation refers to

adjusting to climate change impacts in order to prevent or reduce the risks and damages asso- ciated with the impacts of climate change; mitigation is the reduction in GHG emissions in order to prevent or slow down the process of climate change [42]. While adapting to climate change, farmers may face a number of different obstacles of varying nature and intensity that can undermine their adaptation efforts and impede the overall adaptation process. The study findings show that higher labor requirements, lack of interest and knowledge about adaptation practices, poor financial and government support are the major obstacles that affect farmers’ adaptation efforts in the Eastern Province. Several previous studies conducted in different countries identified similar problems faced by the farming community at large [92–96]. Agriculture is a labor-intensive profession [97]. Much of the farm work in the Kingdom is carried out by the foreign workers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Over the last few years, the cost of living has significantly increased due to governmental measures for the expa- triates. It makes difficult for the local farm owners to procure cheap labor. The resident work- ers also show less interest for such remote jobs where wages are relatively low and there are also limited opportunities to supplement earning using some other paid part-time PLOS ONE Adaptation of climate change among farmers PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838 January 25, 2023 13 / 20