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• Most tea farmers in Nepal are aware of climate change and how to adapt to it. • Common adaptation strategies are crop diversification, soil conservation, agroforestry, and the usage of less climate-sensitive tea cultivars. • Farmers who are members of a cooperative, who have access to credit, and who attended frequent training generally used a wider range of climate change adaptation strategies. • Many tea farmers are not aware of the government's strategic plans to increase the production and export of Nepalese tea. Climate change is threatening the livelihood of tea farmers in Nepal. Simultaneously, the production of tea is becoming an increasingly important economic sector for the country. This study aimed to reveal the adaptation behavior towards climate change among smallholder tea farmers, particularly which demographic, institutional, and information source factors are likely to influence the degree of adaptation. We collected quantitative data in the district of Ilam via 91 farmers through a questionnaire survey and applied descriptive statistics, multiple regression, and binary logistic regression models to analyze the collected data. Findings revealed that information sources (peer exchange, internet, and training attendance), as well as institutional factors (cooperative membership and credit access), positively influenced the degree of climate change adaptation among the respondents. Easier credit access and joining cooperatives could enhance the adaptative capacity of smallholder tea farmers. Improving the interaction between the Nepalese government and stakeholders involved in the domestic tea value chain could also increase economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]