International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.5, 257-266 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 263 unmet needs, particularly in marketing, crop insurance, and irrigation. This gap underscores the inadequacy of current support to address comprehensive climate resilience. Table 9 Support received and needed Variable Response/Practice Percentage (%) Support received Subsidies, training, polyhouse, seeds 77 Adaptation used Polyhouse, new cultivars, irrigation 71.42 Support most needed Marketing, crop insurance, and irrigation 100 3.10 Impact of climate change and other variables on migration and the availability of medicinal plants The correlation analysis indicates strong interlinkages between climate change perception, medicinal plant availability, and household livelihood responses (Table 10). Larger households were more likely to collect medicinal plants, reflecting their higher resource needs and labour capacity. Education was positively associated with awareness of climate change, but negatively related to migration, suggesting that educated households are more capable of adapting locally. Climate change awareness was strongly correlated with perceptions of declining medicinal plant availability, highlighting the role of environmental change in resource scarcity. Income from medicinal plants was negatively correlated with both climate change awareness and migration, meaning that households facing reduced medicinal plant income were more likely to migrate. Overall, the findings suggest a feedback chain where climate change reduces medicinal plant availability, leading to declining income and eventually prompting migration, especially among vulnerable households. Table 10 Correlation among key demographic, livelihood, and climate-related variables Variables Household size Education level Climate change awareness Medicinal plant availability Income from medicinal plants Migration Household size 1 -0.18 0.12 0.26* 0.21 0.15 Education level - 1 0.41** -0.22* 0.19 -0.28* Climate change awareness - - 1 0.53** -0.31** 0.35** Medicinal plant availability (perceived) - - - 1 0.47** -0.29* Income from medicinal plants - - - - 1 -0.38** Note: *Significant at p< 0.05, **Significant at p <0.01 4 Discussion 4.1 Interpretation and comparison A significant positive relationship was observed between climate change awareness and the perception of declining medicinal plant availability. This indicates that households that report noticing climatic changes also experience reductions in the abundance and accessibility of medicinal plants. Such findings are consistent with studies by Kunwar et al. (2013), who reported that local communities in far-west Nepal linked changing rainfall patterns, drought, and temperature rise to declining medicinal plant populations. Likewise, Shrestha and Bawa (2014) documented that climate-induced habitat shifts are threatening alpine and subalpine medicinal species, reducing both their ecological range and harvestable supply. These observations underscore the vulnerability of traditional resource-based livelihoods to climatic variability in the Himalayan context. The availability of medicinal plants was strongly correlated with household income from these resources, which is intuitive as greater access to plant resources enhances earnings. However, a negative relationship was observed between medicinal plant income and migration. This suggests that when availability declines and income diminishes, households are compelled to seek alternative livelihood opportunities outside their local area, often through migration. Gentle and Maraseni (2012) observed a similar pattern in rural Nepal, where declining natural resources due to climate change drove seasonal and permanent migration, particularly among economically vulnerable households.
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