Effects of climate change on the agricultural sector: Tarsus example

One of the 26 global hot zones at risk from climate change is the Mediterranean Basin. This study investigates Tarsus, one of the important agricultural centers of Turkey located in the Mediterranean Basin. Farmers are in a position to change the future of climate change. Therefore, climate policies to be prepared in the agricultural sector should be designed based on local sensitivities and with farmers in mind. In this study, the impact of climate change on farmers was examined specifically for Tarsus. It was investigated how climate change affects rural Tarsus, how farmers perceive these changes and how they resist them. In the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used together, and a mixed method was applied. In the mixed method study, which was conducted from quantitative to qualitative, face-to-face surveys were conducted with 309 farmers and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 196 people. In addition, field observations and secondary data from MGM, TÜİK, District Agriculture and Forestry Directorate were used. SPSS version 22.0 was used for the analysis of the obtained data. For climate data obtained from MGM, Mann Kendall slope test, independent sample t test, one-way variance analysis, post hoc Bonferroni and post hoc LSD tests were applied for the analysis of dependent variables such as gender, age and location. In addition, correlation and regression analysis were performed to determine the relationships between variables. The findings of the study revealed that climate change transforms not only environmental but also epistemological (information shift), temporal (time shift), operational (production and labor planning), social (farmer-worker relationship) and power relations (micro Leviathan-time power). At the same time, the findings showed that farmers are not passive and inactive, but active and thinking. It was discovered that farmers develop different epistemological perspectives in the face of changing conditions, and reveal different subject typologies within the perpetrator-victim chain with their contradictions, hopes and resistances. In addition, this study determined that farmers are in the rural subaltern position and become silent. The data obtained from MGM have scientifically proven that climate change is experienced in Tarsus. According to the field research results, farmers declared that they were affected by climate change at a rate of 89.3%. Keywords: Climate Change, Farmer, Rural Sociology, Knowledge Shift, Time Shift. Keywords: Climate Change, Farmers, Rural Sociology, Knowledge Displacement, Temporal Displacement