Exploring farmers’ adaptation strategies to water shortage under climate change in the Tunisian semi-arid region

This study explores the adaptation strategies to water shortage at the farm level in the Tunisian semi-arid region and investigates factors determining the farmers’ behavior. In this area, climate change exacerbates the scarcity of water resources, groundwater suffers from saline intrusion, and the reinforcement of surface water depends on the water transfer decision. Based on 81 farmers survey data collected in Diar El Hajjaj irrigated area, the typology of farmers was constructed using the multivariate technique combining the clustering method and principal component analysis.The results show that two groups of the surveyed farmers use more intensive water resources to grow high-value crops and operate toward a commercial farming system. They set up either an accommodating or an expansive plan. The remaining sampled farmers are smallholder farmers who endure critical resource constraints. They tend to adopt a contractive strategy and face a real risk of farming abandonment. Additional actions should be taken at the farm level as well at the national policy level to preserve the farming system under water scarcity due to climate change effects.