The Role of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Improving Farmers' Resilience to Climate Change: Its Potentials and Challenges

Farmers are now experiencing hardships resulting from the increasing variability of climate, global warming, and the more frequent (and severe) extreme events. Those consequences of climate change on agriculture produced increasing vulnerabilities of food crops ecosystems and threats to farmers' resilience in the changing environment. Without any timely and appropriate services from the government, the farmers would be "trapped in their cages" by not knowing the phenomena beyond their ability to observe. Since farmers are the decision makers of their own fields, providing new scientific knowledge in agrometeorology is urgent. The absence of effective extension services, however, challenged the scientists in their efforts to assist farmers. Based on the experience of institutionalizing an educational commitment to groups of farmers in Indonesia, an inter-disciplinary approach between the natural scientist (agrometeorology) and social-cultural scientist (anthropology) has proved to be an effective means in providing climate services to farmers. The paper examines the ways the inter-disciplinary approach has been developed in the past decade in two regencies in Indonesia (Indramayu Regency and East Lombok Regency). An ongoing reflexivity and inter-subjectivity between the scientists from different disciplines and between scientists and farmers has been a significant means in making the collaboration works effectively.