Abstract:
Abstract: Catastrophic environmental changes consistently surpass human capabili-
ties in mitigating climatic events in many instances. Disasters like drought and hu-
man-animal conflict are predominant in the Sri Lankan context and have been linked
to climate change recently. The objective of the current study is to analyse climate
change-induced impacts on rural farming livelihoods. Weliwewa Grama Niladhari
Division in Sooriyawewa, Hambantota, in southern Sri Lanka was selected as the field
site for the study. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews
with 20 respondents selected randomly from the farming community, in-depth inter-
views with five key informants, and four focus group interviews with respondents
who were selected purposively. The changes in rainfall patterns have converted sea-
sonal farming from two seasons into three seasons. Predicting rain is unfeasible, un-
like in the past. Despite the lack of sufficient rainwater for cultivation, farmers have
been depending on irrigation water, despite the hardships they endure. Water scarcity
has expanded to cause food insecurity and livelihood alterations among farming com-
munities. This has been worsened by the influx of wild animals from the nearby forest
areas. One aspect of animal ravage is the adapted dependence on farming lands and
stimulation of their behaviour through deforestation driven by development interven-
tions; the other is the constant bio-diversity transformations, which include the in-
crease of agricultural pests (i.e., peafowl, monkeys), which have made farming hard
due to the unstoppable and unmeasured invasive effects. The physical deprivation
created by those events has left those farmers economically and socially deprived.
Proper measurement of bio-diversity transformations is needed, and water deprecia-
tion should be sustainably addressed to mitigate their adverse effects on the farming
community. The use of technological measures to identify changes in climatic forms
while formulating community-sensitive measures will be effective for the well-being
of the community and the ecosystem.
