ORIGINAL ARTICLE Agricultural adaptation to climate change: insights from a farming community in Sri Lanka Mohamed Esham & Chris Garforth Received: 19 June 2011 / Accepted: 8 March 2012 / Published online: 3 April 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract The vulnerability of smallholder farmers to climate change and variability is increasingly rising. As agriculture is the only source of income for most of them, agricultural adaptation with respect to climate change is vital for their sustenance and to ensure food security. In order to develop appropriate strategies and institutional responses, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the farmers’ perception of climate change, actual adapta- tions at farm-level and what factors drive and constrain their decision to adapt. Thus, this study investigates the farm-level adaptation to climate change based on the case of a farming community in Sri Lanka. The findings revealed that farmers’ perceived the ongoing climate change based on their experiences. Majority of them adopted measures to address climate change and variability. These adaptation measures can be categorised into five groups, such as crop management, land management, irrigation management, income diversification, and rituals. The results showed that management of non-climatic factors was an important strategy to enhance farmers’ adaptation, particularly in a resource-constrained smallholder farming context. The results of regression analysis indicated that human cognition was an important determinant of climate change adaptation. Social networks were also found to significantly influence adaptation. The study also revealed that social barriers, such as cognitive and normative factors, are equally important as other economic barriers to adaptation. While formulating and implementing the adaptation strategies, this study under- scored the importance of understanding socio-economic, cognitive and normative aspects of the local communities. Keywords Adaptation . Agricultural sector . Climate change . Smallholder farmers . Sri Lanka Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2013) 18:535–549 DOI 10.1007/s11027-012-9374-6 M. Esham (*) Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, PO Box 02, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka e-mail: mesham20021@yahoo.com C. Garforth School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 237, Reading RG6 6AR, UK e-mail: c.j.garforth@reading.ac.uk