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

3.5. Obstacles to adaptation for combating climate change Table 5 shows farmers’ views about different obstacles to adaptation. Fig 3 presents the results after combing the five response categories to three. About 59% of the farmers had the opinion that adaptation requires more labor. Majority (75%) believed that they lacked proper knowl- edge about adaptation practices. Most of the farmers (66%) were also convinced that adapta- tion efforts need time for their implementation. Around 79% of the respondents believed that financial support is required for adaptation. Majority (80%) of the farmers were also convinced that adaptation also need government support. Although 56% expressed that only few farmers show interest in adaptation, but 39% were neutral about this issue. About 69% agreed that adaptation increases maintenance costs whereas 79% believed that adaptation implementation efforts are costly. 3.6. Differences in farmers’ beliefs, concerns and their views regarding obstacles to adaptation according to demographic characteristics Tables 6 and 7 show the results of non-parametric analysis run to identify differences in farm- ers’ beliefs about climate change, their concerns about the adverse impacts of climate change and their views about adaptation obstacles. The results of Mann Whitney U test revealed that there were no significant differences in farmers’ climate change beliefs, their concerns and views about adaptation obstacles due to their membership of agricultural cooperatives, access

to extension services and access to agricultural loans. Significant differences in farmers beliefs about climate change were found due to their communication with other farmers about Table 4. Frequency distribution of the farmers’ concerns about adverse impacts of climate change. Potential Problem Not Concerned (%) Slightly Concerned (%) Concerned (%) Very Concerned (%) Mean (n = 80) Standard Deviation Drought 13.8 12.5 56.3 17.5 2.77 0.90 Flooding 72.5 17.5 6.3 3.8 1.41 0.77 Weeds 31.3 32.5 28.7 7.5 2.12 0.94 Insect pressure 6.3 18.8 38.8 36.3 3.05 0.89 Crop diseases 6.3 20.0 38.8 35.0 3.03 0.90 Soil erosion 27.5 35.0 25.0 12.5 2.22 0.99 Heat stress on crops 10.0 18.8 45.0 26.3 2.88 0.91 Saturated soils and ponded water 47.5 20.0 20.0 12.5 1.98 1.09 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838.t004 Table 5. Frequency distribution of the farmers’ view of obstacles to adaptation. Obstacle Strongly Disagree (%) Disagree (%) Neutral (%) Agree (%) Strongly Agree (%) Mean (n = 80) Standard Deviation Adaptation requires more labor 6.3 10.0 25.0 47.5 11.2 3.47 1.03 Lack of knowledge about adaptation practices 3.7 10.0 11.3 65.0 10.0 3.68 0.92 Adaptation efforts need time 3.8 2.5 27.5 56.2 10.0 3.66 0.84 Adaptation efforts need financial support 2.5 3.7 15.0 33.8 45.0 4.15 0.98 Adaptation needs government support 2.5 2.5 15.0 35.0 45.0 4.17 0.95 Few farmers show interest to adapt 3.8 6.2 33.8 40.0 16.2 3.59 0.96

Adaptation increases the cost of maintenance 2.5 10.0 18.8 52.4 16.3 3.70 0.94 Adapting to climate change is costly to implement 2.5 6.3 12.5 51.2 27.5 3.95 0.94 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838.t005 PLOS ONE Adaptation of climate change among farmers PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280838 January 25, 2023 9 / 20