This study examines climate variability, agricultural vulnerability and rural livelihood adaptation in Bilaspur District, Chhattisgarh, within a predominantly rainfed rice-growing setting. The source manuscript reports a mixed-methods study integrating a household survey of 420 farming households in 42 villages across six selected blocks, 24 focus-group discussions, 45 key-informant interviews and a 1990–2022 climate series. Mann–Kendall and Sen-slope analyses characterized climate trends; Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) and LVI–IPCC frameworks assessed vulnerability; and binary logistic regression examined adaptation correlates.

Annual mean temperature reportedly increased by 0.032°C year−1 (p < 0.001), while annual rainfall showed no statistically significant trend despite increasing monsoon variability. Drought-year rice yields were 18.4% lower than normal-year yields. The composite LVI was 0.452, with stronger vulnerability among marginal, rainfed and female-headed households. Of the respondents, 73.1% adopted at least one adaptation measure: crop diversification (48.6%), changed planting dates (42.1%) and water-efficient practices (38.3%) were prominent. Education, farm size, irrigation, extension access, credit access and climate information were positively associated with adoption. The study highlights the need for targeted irrigation, climate services, institutional access and livelihood diversification. This shortened article retains the source manuscript’s reported results; the underlying data have not been independently reanalysed.