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

2.2. Research design This study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey design. The selection of Al-Ahsa gov- ernorate as the sampling area was purely made on the basis of its agricultural importance to the Eastern Province. Much of the agricultural activities in the Eastern Province are carried out in this governorate; the area has many date palm farms that also cultivate fruits, vegetables and other field crops in interspaces between date palm trees. Keeping in view the dates produc- tion in the area, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) established a modern date processing factory in the recent past. A group of researchers and experts in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Society, King Saud University, Riyadh devel- oped and validated the survey questionnaire before data collection. A list of farmers was obtained from the Directorate of Agriculture, Eastern Province (A working body of Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Saudi Arabia). The list provided details of about 191 farmers of Al-Ahsa region. Using simple random sampling, 80 farmers were selected from the list for data collection. Before data collection, farmers’ informed consent was verbally obtained. It was explained to them in a candid manner that their participation in the study is not com- pulsory and the collected data will only be used for academic purposes. Data were collected using structured interviews. Questions were asked using same wording and in the same order-

ing to all the respondents following a standardized pattern. The duration of each interview was between 30–40 minutes. The data collection process lasted for two months, from January to February 2022. 2.3. Research instrument The survey questionnaire was divided into different parts to collect desired data. The first part contained questions related to demographic characteristics of the farmers. These included age, Fig 1. Map of the study area. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838.g001 PLOS ONE Adaptation of climate change among farmers PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838 January 25, 2023 4 / 20