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

potential adverse impacts of climate change. In order to minimize these risks and vulnerabili- ties, farmers need to adopt a set of climate-smart and sustainable agricultural practices. However, their lack of interest and poor knowledge about different adaptation practices can reduce their capacity to adapt to climate change impacts. These hurdles can be overcome by the government by investing in agricultural extension for improving farmers’ access to quality extension services that ensure their capacity development. Alotaibi et al, [54] have highlighted the weaknesses of public extension system in Saudi Arabia. Extension personnel need to be properly trained about the latest sustainable agricultural practices through in-ser- vice training programs in order to upgrade their knowledge and skills and to make this institu- tion effective and relevant [109–112]. Financial constraints can be addressed by providing farmers with targeted agricultural subsidies and interest-free loans. Moreover, conducive regu- latory frameworks and creation of markets for the farmers could ensure long-term adaptation by the farmers. Adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by the farming community will help the kingdom to implement Paris Agreement as well as achieve several Sustainable Devel- opment Goals (SDGs) related to poverty, food security and ecosystem protection. 5.1 Limitations of the study The questionnaire was not pilot tested due to lack of time and money. Secondly, the present study only selected farmers from the Al-Ahsa region alone. Eastern province consists of 11 dif-

ferent directorates; future studies could select more than one directorate in order to better rep- resent the region. Thirdly, in order to gain actual insights about farmers adaptation to climate change, future researchers may record various practices used by the farmers at their farms. This approach would be more practical in nature and would help us to analyze the actual situa- tion in the field. Author Contributions Conceptualization: Muhammad I. Azeem, Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Data curation: Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Formal analysis: Muhammad I. Azeem. Investigation: Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Project administration: Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Resources: Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Software: Bader Alhafi Alotaibi. Visualization: Muhammad I. Azeem. Writing – original draft: Muhammad I. Azeem. Writing – review & editing: Muhammad I. Azeem. References 1. IPCC. Summary for urban policymakers: what the IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5˚ C means for cities. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018. 2. WMO. WMO statement on the state of the global climate in 2018. World Meteorological Organization, 2019. 3. UNESCO. United Nations world water development report 2020: water and climate change. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2020. PLOS ONE Adaptation of climate change among farmers PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838 January 25, 2023 15 / 20