Role of Media in Addressing the Challenges of Climate Change in the Rice-Wheat Cropping Zone in the Punjab Province, Pakistan

Abstract

The objective of this research was to analyze the role of media information in addressing the challenges of climate change in the rice-wheat cropping zone in the Punjab province, Pakistan. The study specifically analyzed the relationship between information sources and the impact of climate change. The study was conducted in the central region of the Punjab province, Pakistan. Data collection was done by multi-stage sampling from the rice-wheat crop zone of Punjab. In the 1^st stage, three districts i.e., Narowal, Gujranwala, and Sialkot were selected randomly from the central Punjab region. One tehsil was randomly selected at the 2^nd stage from each district. Six union councils (UCs) at the 3rd stage were picked at random; two from each tehsil. In the 4th stage, four villages from each UC were selected by systematic random sampling. At the 5^th stage, 17 farmers were selected randomly from each village (480 farmers in total). Data were collected by the face-to-face administration of a structured questionnaire and were analysed by SPSS version 21. The outcome of the present investigation has revealed that the fellow farmers (x̅=2.24 ± 0.54), private companies (dealers of fertilizer & pesticides) (x̅ =1.70 ± 0.74), burji /wall chalking (x̅ =1.53±0.66), TV (x̅=1.47±0.72), field assistant/Agri. officer of the dept. of Agriculture (x̅=1.43 ± 0.52) and mobile phone (x̅=1.42 ± 0.64) was ranked 1^st to 6^th, respectively, as sources of information concerning climate change. Moreover, the results of the logistic regression model showed that the sources of information, i.e., TV, mobile, Zarai digest, fellow farmers, and private companies, had a positive and significant role (P<0.05) in adopting the coping strategies to cope with the climate changes while radio had a non-significant influence. The study concludes that credible and need-based information sources are the core priority of climate-affected areas. It is a dire need to address these challenges through rapid implementation of cost-effective resources to minimize the loss of climate change