Potato Farmers’ Knowledge and Practices Related to Adaptation to the Effects of Climate Changes in A Number of Villages of Kom Hamada District, El- Beheira Governorate

This research aims mainly to study the knowledge and practices of potato crop growers related to adaptation to the effects of climate change in El-Beheira Governorate. El- Beheira Governorate was chosen to conduct this research as it is one of the largest governorates in the Arab Republic of Egypt in terms of area, as it represents 9% of the total area of ​​the Republic, moreover, El-Beheira governorate is one of the largest potato producing areas in Egypt. The research data was collected through a questionnaire conducted during personal interviews with farmers surveyed. The research was held on a sample of potato growers representing the overall number of potato crop growers in the three villages of Kom Hamada district, El-Beheira governorate, which are the main focus of potato cultivation. The overall number of those farmers amounted to (690) respondent. Potato farmers studied were a randomly chosen sample selected from each of the three villages individually, according to the relative importance of each village, out of the total number of potato crop growers in these three villages under study, which amounted to (247) farmers surveyed representing about 36% of the overall population of potato growers in the three studied villages, this percentage was calculated according to Robert Mason’s equation to determine the sample size. The descriptive statistical methods utilized were the arithmetic mean, percentages, frequency tables, standard deviation, Pearson’s simple correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis model in analyzing research data. The research results showed the following: The majority of the farmers surveyed (82.59%) had a low and medium level of knowledge related to climate changes and its adverse effects on the agricultural sector in general and on potato cultivation in particular. The results indicated that The knowledge of potato growers related to climate changes and its adverse effects had a direct moral relationship at the level (0.01) with each of the following factors: (age of the respondent, educational level of the respondent, membership of local organizations, and sources of agricultural information). While, this relationship was in a direct moral correlation at the level (0.05) with each of the following factors: (total area cultivated with potato crop, number of years of residence in the region, readiness for change, local organization membership, and orientation towards agricultural extension). The moral effect of each of the following independent variables: (the age of the respondent, membership of local organizations) was evident at a moral level (0.01) based on the calculated (T) value, which amounted to (3,183, 3,784), respectively. It also became clear that the effect of each of the following independent variables: (total area cultivated with the potato crop, and the trend towards agricultural extension) was moral at a moral level (0.05) based on the calculated (t) value, with a value of (2,275, 2,050), respectively. In addition, these variables contribute to the interpretation of about (47.8%) of the knowledge level of potato crop growers surveyed about climate changes and its negative effects, based on the value of the determination coefficient (R2), which reached (0.478). Also, It beacome obvious from the research results that the degrees of the level of application of the respondent potato growers to the practices related to facing the negative effects of climate changes were in direct moral correlation at a moral level (0.01) with each of the following factors: (age of the respondent, educational level of the respondent, number of years of residence in the region, membership of local organizations, sources of agricultural information, and the trend towards agricultural exextension). On the other hand, the relationship was moral at the level (0.05) with each of the following factors: (community participation, and readiness for change). Besides, the model clarified the moral effect of each of the following independent variables: (age of the respondent and educational level of the respondent) at a moral level (0.01) based on the calculated (T) value, which amounted to (3,063, 0.783) respectively. Additionally, the model clarified the moral effect of each Of the following independent variables: (membership of local organizations, sources of agricultural information, and readiness for change) at a moral level (0.05) based on the calculated (T) value, which amounted to (2,338, 2,174, 1,940) respectively. Moreover, these variables contribute to the interpretation of about (45.8%) of the changes in the degree of application of the potato crop farmers surveyed to the practices related to facing the negative effects of climate changes based on the value of the determination coefficient (R2), which amounted to (0.458), and it was found that the most prominent problems hampering from adapting to the effects of climate changes were: high prices of fertilizers and pesticides, imported seeds are expensive, lack of information about seeds, greed of local traders, high prices of production inputs, weak material capabilities, lack of irrigation water, fertilizers and pesticides of unknown origin, high wages of labor, and lack of agricultural extension courses to raise awareness of the dangers of climate changes.