Journal of Taiwan Agricultural Research

Author:Jiun-Hao Wang

Abstract:

    Although there is an increasing body of literature indicates that climate change and its caused extreme weather events have seriously threatened lifestyle of indigenous tribe and mountain agricultural production. However, relatively little is known about the quantitative association among climate disaster, area capital and agricultural production of indigenous peoples. Paying special attention to territorial competitiveness of ingidenous area, the objective of this study is to examine the extent to which climate disorder and disaster, area capital profile and socio-demographic factors are associated with indigenous agricultural production. Data used were drawn from the “Tayal tribe survey in Jianshi Township” in 2013, including 114 valid samples. This study employed the ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model to estimate the effects of indigenous area capital and climate disaster severity on their agricultural production. The results show that crop quality decrease and deterioration of environment for crop production are the worst consequences resulted from climate disorder. As expected, different dimensional area capitals have positive contribution to reduce the impact of climate disorder on indigenous agricultural production significantly, except the economic capital. Several policy implications for agricultural adaptation to climate change for indigenous agricultural development can be inferred from these findings. The first prority of adaptative stretagy is to strengthen social networks of tribal solidarity among indigenous peoples. The social dimension of area capital can contribute to enhance climate and disaster resilience in the context of indigenous agricultural development. For example, to maintain traditional way of life and social networks of Tayal tribes can contribute to reducing climate change risk for agriculture through utilizing indigenous mutual supporting organization and sharing values system.

Key words:Indigenous tribe, Climate disaster, Area capital, Territorial competitiveness

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