Interpreting the Lived Experiences and Meaning-Making of Climate Adaptation among Dryland Farmers Facing Shifting Rainfall Patterns
Keywords:
Climate Adaptation, Phenomenology, Dryland Farming, Lived Experience, Climate Uncertainty, Interpretative AnalysisAbstract
Climate variability has become a central concern in environmental and social sciences due to its profound effects on rural livelihoods. Within this broader field, limited attention has been given to the subjective experiences of dryland farmers who navigate unpredictable rainfall patterns and the cultural and emotional meanings embedded in their adaptive practices. However, little is known about how these farmers interpret climatic uncertainty in their everyday lives, leading to the key question of how they construct meaning around their adaptive responses. Here we show that an interpretative phenomenological approach reveals adaptation as a deeply experiential process shaped by emotional, social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with dryland farmers, we applied Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to systematically explore meaning-making processes. The analysis generated four core experiential themes: enduring uncertainty, engaging in collective coping, mobilizing ecological knowledge, and grounding responses in spiritual values. These findings demonstrate, in concrete terms, how adaptation is understood and lived, highlighting that adaptive action extends beyond technical adjustments into meaning-centered engagement with environmental change. The study offers a concise contribution to climate adaptation scholarship by foregrounding farmers’ lived interpretations and emphasizing the relevance of human-centered insights for future policy and research.
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