Climate change likely to impact rainfall patterns leading to higher uncertainty and difficulties in management of both water scarcity and flood events. Temporal trends of rainfall and its variability of Karnal district, representing fresh groundwater zones of Haryana, were analysed by non-parametric zones of Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen's slope approaches.

Resource-poor farmers, living in marginal environments and more directly dependent on local natural resources, have developed location specific agricultural knowledge systems that help them to adapt to climatic variability. In this research, we documented farmers’ perceptions of climatic variability and related adaptive practices in three selected hamlets of Azamgarh district of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Data were collected with 60 farmers using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools and personal interview methods.