{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02418222476467835, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007228665037183421, 'mean_word_length': 5.431438127090301, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 1, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Assessing Indigenous Knowledge through Farmers’ Perception and Adaptation to Climate Change in Pakistan

Integrating local perceptions and indigenous knowledge along with climate change policies has always been a neglected issue in developing countries. The approaches used are mostly originated from western concepts, developed in totally different socio-economic, cultural and political environments without recognizing local resources, individual opinions and knowledge. The present study tries to fill this gap and emphasizes the realization of the importance of need and transmission of modern scientific knowledge to local communities. So, the broader objective was to examine farmers’ perceptions about climate change and other environmental issues through their indigenous knowledge. For this purpose, data was collected by interviewing 386 farmers from three different agro-ecological zones of Punjab Province, Pakistan. The methods used were problem cataloging index, weighted averages index and constraint index. Results indicated climate change as the biggest environmental problem, whereas scientists and the media were credited as the two most effective and reliable sources for climate information dissemination. In order to handle the issue of climate change, government, local councils and business and industry were assumed to be highly responsible, but farmers did not trust them. Although farmers’ perceive climate change, due to many constraints very few of them were adapting accordingly. The major constraints were lack of money, high cost of farm inputs and lack of knowledge about appropriate adaptations. Findings suggest that inclusion of indigenous people in the decisionmaking process about local and national adaptation initiatives will help policy makers collaborate with local residents more effectively in order to better deal with the crisis of climate change.

process, unfortunately they have failed to recognize the goals and aspirations of the local community as these approaches were totally based on western concepts developed in totally different socio-economic, cultural and political environments [3]. In other words, local resources, individual opinions and knowledge were not recognized while formulating the policies.
Pakistan is greatly exposed to extreme weather events due to changing climate [4,5]. According to the global climate risk index, Pakistan was the 8 th most affected country due to climate change during the period 1995-2014 [6]. Furthermore, the frequency and severity of extreme events is likely to increase due to predicted climate change [7]. Therefore, serious implications for agriculture are conveyed, and more crop losses are expected to happen that ultimately affect the economy of Pakistan [8,9].
The use of indigenous knowledge is not a new concept. It has been used and discussed in literature but when we talk about climate change, a little scholarly work is available that addresses indigenous knowledge in the formulation of more viable and sustainable climate policies [10]. The knowledge accumulated across generations is usually termed as indigenous knowledge that mostly exists in oral form only and emerges from shared practices, experiences and storytelling that is reinforced by the experience of trial and error. Indigenous knowledge is holistic, integrative and situated within the border of cultural traditions primarily belonging to a specific location; therefore, it might not be applicable and transferable to other places [11].
Public belief about the importance and existence of climate change is strongly linked to their perception about local climate variations [12,13]. Lack of firsthand experience for possible consequences of climate change has been indicated as one of the major reasons that people may not take actions to mitigate climate change or adapt accordingly, while on the other hand people who experience climate change directly would be more concerned and persuaded to proceed with sustainable behaviors [14]. But it is important to realize that noticeable impacts of climate change produce opportunities for individuals to become more confident about the reality of climate change, or does prior belief certainty shapes public perceptions through a process of motivated reasoning [15]. It is also required to frame the indigenous knowledge and climate concerns of local residents so that transmission of modern scientific knowledge can be effectively planned. Hence, the objective of this study is to examine a farmers' perception about climate change through indigenous knowledge.
This study identified the role of indigenous knowledge in adaptation to climate change in four steps. Firstly, we identify and ranked different environmental issues based on farmers' perceived rate of importance for each environmental issue. Secondly, the level of responsibility and trust on different stakeholders is assumed to take actions to minimize the negative consequences of climate change in Pakistan is determined. Thirdly, the importance of indigenous knowledge in climate change adaptation was analyzed by identifying the rate of self-reported adaptive mechanisms and coping strategies. In the end, potential constraints in adaptation to climate change were ranked based on the degree of constraint.
This paper has been divided into five sections. The first section introduces the study carried out along a brief review of literature in the second section. The third section explains the methodological framework followed to obtain the results, while the fourth part describes the results and a discussion on findings. The last section concludes the research and highlights some policy suggestions and recommendations based on the results.

Review of Literature
Although a limited scholarly evidence is available on climate change perception, research conducted so far has indicated that an individual's views on environmental issues and perceptions about climate change can be linked to an individual's experiences and physical surroundings. For example, people living in low-lying coastal areas have been identified with a sharp sense of potential future risks [16]. There is some evidence that the experience of a disaster and environmental problem can influence the views and perceptions of the local residents [17]. Physical vulnerability and experience that can be attributable to climate change indicated variations in perception about climate change and also in support for related policies on mitigation and adaptation [16,17].
Historically, indigenous knowledge has remained a key source for rural farming communities in adapting to a constantly varying and changing climate [18] that provides the potential for locally relevant and sustainable adaptation strategies in agriculture under changing climate [19][20][21]. Furthermore, collaboration between indigenous knowledge and scientific research is suggested as a new coproduced knowledge that is pertinent in an operational adaptation plan at the local level [22], as knowledge is always learned, identified and applied within a farmers' cultural setting [21]. Furthermore, indigenous knowledge is a place base knowledge and is therefore essential in planning local interventions and policies at the local level. Although the importance of indigenous knowledge in adapting to climate change is imperative but a little empirical work is available on this issue in Pakistan. Hence this study is based on the assessment of indigenous knowledge and adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector. Incorporating indigenous knowledge in climate change policies and intervention will lead to the development of an effective adaptation plan including cost-effective, participatory and locally relevant adaptation strategies that are sustainable [23].
Farmers' perception and indigenous knowledge about climate change is connected to awareness and further education of farmers and lowering the technological and financial capacities of farmers. Ineffective climate policy is also limiting the current support for adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector. Hence, for a well-targeted adaptation policy there is need to integrate indigenous factors shaping the farmers perception and their adaptive responses [24]. The importance of indigenous knowledge is also realized while designing and implementing development projects. So, integrating local perception and indigenous knowledge into climate change policies would help formulate a more costeffective, participatory and sustainable way out for the issue of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies [23].

Methodology
The study was conducted in three different agroecological zones of Punjab Province, which is the main agricultural area of the country. One district from each agro-ecological zone was selected purposively. The districts under study were Rajan Pur, Jhang and Rawalpindi. Cross-sectional data was collected by interviewing 386 farmers through a well-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Farmers' perceptions and indigenous knowledge about climate change was represented by using some basic descriptive statistical tools, i.e., frequencies, percentages and means. The extent of environmental problems, levels of responsibility and trust and degrees of constraint in adaptation processes were estimated using a problem cataloging index (PCI), weighted average index (WAI) and constraint index (CI). We adapted these methodologies from Uddin, et al., (2014) and Ndamani and Watanabe (2015) [25][26][27], where weighted average index (WAI) was applied to assess farmers' perceived adaptation strategies in Bangladesh and barriers of adaptation to climate change in Nepal.

Problem Cataloging Index (PCI)
For identification of most important environmental issues in Pakistan, a problem cataloging index (PCI) was applied to all environmental issues and then all environmental issues were ranked based on their estimated PCI value. Farmers were asked to rate their perceptions about each environmental issue on a Likert scale, i.e., ranging from very important to not important at all, also including a "don't know" option. Frequencies for each level of response for each environmental issue were multiplied by a weight of from 5 to 0 (5 for very important and 0 for don't know), and then a PCI value was generated by adding all weighted frequencies.
Finally, all environmental issues were ranked on the basis of their estimated PCI value. The PCI value was estimated using the formula below: PCI = P VI × 5 + P I × 4 + P LI × 3 + P NI × 2 +P NIA × 1 + P DK × 0 (1) …where: PCI = Problem Cataloging Index P VI = Number of farmers who rated the environmental problem as very important P I = … important P LI = … less important P NI = … not important P NIA = … not important at all P DK = … don't know A constraint index was applied to identify the degree …where "WAI" is the weighted average index, "F" is the frequency of response and "W" is the weight of each score; and i = score, i.e., a lot = 4, a little = 3, not very much = 2 not at all = 1, can't choose = 0.
The same methodology was used to assess farmers' views about the level of responsibility and trust on different stakeholders that were assumed to take some actions to reduce the negative consequences of climate change.

Results and Discussion
A descriptive overview is generally used to get preliminary insight of the socio-economic characteristics of respondents. Therefore, age, years of education, family size, years of farming experience and total cultivated area are analyzed. Age reflects a sign of maturity and experience [28,29], whereas education reflect a farmer's access to advanced ways of farming [30], while farming experience improves perception about climate change [28] and therefore helps in understanding a farmers' indigenous knowledge about climate change and agriculture. The farm area under cultivation usually serves as a proxy for a farmers' wealth that is further linked to farmers' adaptive capacity [31]. A greater labor endowment is connected to the better achievement of agricultural activities at a farm and therefore family size is an important indicator while studying farmers' adaptation to climate change. Results in Table 1 indicate that a respondent's mean age in the study area was about 45 years. Whereas mean education, family size, farming experience and total cultivated area were about 6 years, 6 members, 21 years and 6 acres, respectively. Education and landholding both were found to be lower, indicating limited capacity to engage in adaptation to climate change, whereas age and farming experience depicted enough maturity to comprehend farmers' understandings about climate change and agriculture.

Farmers' Trust of Information about Climate Change
There are always some common sources of information for every individual in any society, but the level of trust varies in different regions; therefore, farmers' trust on climate change information was evaluated so that better climate information dissemination may be suggested, which is a key factor in an efficient climate policy. Four different sources of information were presented to farmers, i.e., a family member or friend, a scientist, environmental organizations and the media (television, radio, and newspaper etc.), and scale of trust was ranked from a lot of trust to no trust with an option to not choose that indicates an inability to choose any trust level.
Results of weighted average index in Table 3 exhibited scientist and the media as the two most trusted sources of information, while a family member or friend and environmental organizations were also trusted by farmers but less than the media and scientists. Hence, scientists and the media are considered the two most operational and effective sources in educating farmers about climate change and improved climate information dissemination.

Level of Responsibility and Trust on Different Stakeholders in Society
While considering the effective application of climate change policy stakeholders, such as government, local councils, business and industry, environmental organizations, individuals and citizens, family and friends and myself are assumed to be responsible for making any changes to limit the negative consequences of climate change. Famers' views were captured on a Likert scale indicating level of responsibility from high to low, including no responsibility, whereas trust was estimated on a Likert scale from high to low trust, including no trust.
Results in Fig. 1 indicated government, local councils and business and industry as highly responsible for making any changes to lessen the impacts of climate change. While studying level of trust, highly responsible stakeholders were indicated as not trusted by most of the respondents. An interesting finding about environmental organizations was observed, although they were considered less responsible but they were trusted. This may be due to the recent active role of environmental organizations in responding to negative impacts of climate change.

Farmers' Perceptions about Climate Change and Adaptation to Climate Change
Farmers' perceptions about different climate indicators described in Fig. 3 highlight how farmers perceive climate change, hence indicating different changes in local climate based on their past 20 years of experience [32]. Farmers observed more hot days, extreme temperatures in both seasons (i.e., summer and winter), change in nighttime temperature, and more rainfall (particularly in monsoon), increased rainfall intensity and more flooding.
Farmers' perceived responses or adaptation practices to changes in local climate and adaptations undertaken are highlighted in Fig. 3. Most farmers have perceived changes in local farming, but very few of them have adapted to perceived changes in farming due to several constraints. Farmers perceive changes in cropping patterns (77%), cropping activities (94%), input applications (89%), soil conservation (92%), water conservation (90%) and diversification of income, but only about 29% of farmers have adapted in cropping patterns. Similarly, about 52%, 50%, 42%, 44% and 30% of farmers have adapted in cropping activities, input    applications, soil conservation, water conservation and diversification of income, respectively. A comprehensive adaptation strategy can only be achieved by identifying the constraints in adaptation processes that create gaps in perceived and adapted strategies.

Constraints in Adapting to Climate Change
Degrees of different constraints were explored through the constraint index (CI). Results in Table 4 highlight the lack of money, high cost of farm inputs and lack of knowledge about appropriate adaptations being the major constraints while adapting to climate change. Whereas among other constraints farmers indicate lack of irrigation resources, lack of climate information, lack of market access and insecure property rights. These constraints can be avoided by enhancing institutional support and capacity for local farmers and by enhancing the outreach of the extension department.

Conclusion and Policy Implications
Our study prioritizes the important environmental issues that will help policy makers and government to formulate more effective ways to cope with environmental challenges. Climate change was found as the biggest environmental problem, whereas flooding, destruction of forests, pollution, traffic/congestion and overpopulation were also categorized as major environmental problems in Pakistan. For better climate information dissemination and farmers' education about climate change, scientists and the media considered the two most operational and effective sources. In order to handle the issue of climate change, government, local councils and business and industry were thought to be responsible, but, they were not trusted. Although farmers perceived that climate is changing rapidly, a few of them adapted accordingly due to many constraints. Lack of money, the high cost of farm inputs and lack of knowledge about appropriate adaptations, lack of irrigation resources and lack of climate information were the major constraints farmers were facing while adapting to climate change. These constraints in the adaptation process can be avoided by providing institutional support to local farmers and by improving the services of the extension department.
This study suggests integrating indigenous knowledge and locally relevant adaptation strategies while designing local and national adaptation initiatives. It can only be achieved by creating local knowledge centers where inclusion of indigenous people in the decision-making process will help in understanding the limitations and opportunities on a smaller scale. Further research, documentation and dissemination of indigenous knowledge in all agro-ecological zones of Pakistan is also suggested, which will further help policy makers to collaborate with local residents for the formulation of more cost-effective, participatory and sustainable ways out to climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies and also effectively deal with the crisis of climate change.