# Climate Change and Agriculture: Subsistence Farmers' Response to Extreme Heat

## TL;DR

This study investigates how subsistence farmers in Peru adapt to extreme heat, revealing that they modify inputs and land use, which impacts productivity and highlights the importance of considering land adjustments in climate change damage assessments.

## Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on farmers' short-term responses to extreme heat, emphasizing the role of input and land adjustments in climate change impact analysis.

## Key findings

- High temperatures reduce crop yields and productivity.
- Farmers increase planted area and change crop mix as coping strategies.
- Land adjustments significantly affect estimates of climate change damages.

## Abstract

This paper examines how subsistence farmers respond to extreme heat. Using micro-data from Peruvian households, we find that high temperatures reduce agricultural productivity, increase area planted, and change crop mix. These findings are consistent with farmers using input adjustments as a short-term mechanism to attenuate the effect of extreme heat on output. This response seems to complement other coping strategies, such as selling livestock, but exacerbates the drop in yields, a standard measure of agricultural productivity. Using our estimates, we show that accounting for land adjustments is important to quantify damages associated with climate change.