Agricultural productivity, farm income and livelihood security, especially for smallholders in vulnerable areas, is severely challenged by climate change-induced shocks like recurrent droughts, delayed onset of monsoon, prolonged dry spells, extreme weather events, etc. The role of agricultural extension services in enhancing farmers’ access to climate information, farmer adaptive practices and building farmer resilience is important, but there is limited quantitative evidence on the role of agricultural extension services in contributing to economic resilience of farmers. The study was conducted in the present state to find out the effect of extension contact on the resilience of farmers towards climate shocks and to understand the factors influencing the economic resilience of farmers in North Karnataka. The primary data were collected from 300 farmers by structured interview schedule and farmers were divided into three groups of low, medium and high extension contact using Extension Contact Index. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis. The findings showed that farmers with high extension contact rate scored more on number of climate resilient practices (4.52 practices/ farmer) than medium (3.01 practices/ farmer) and low extension contact (1.59 practices/ farmer) farmers. Average annual crops income (` 2.86 lakh/farm), Gross return (` 112,670/ha), Net return (` 62,930/ha) and Benefit–Cost ratio (2.27) of the high extension contact farmers were higher than those of the low extension contact farmers (` 1.52 lakh/farm, ` 72,460/ha, ` 25,640/ha and 1.55, respectively). High-extension-contact farmers (18.9%) were less affected on income reduction during the years of climate shock than low-contact farmers (38.6%) and had a significantly higher economic resilience index (76.4) than the low-contact farmers (39.8). Extension contact, climate-resilient practice adoption, crop diversification, access to irrigation, participation in training, and crop insurance significantly improved economic resilience, while climate-shock severity affected resilience negatively, with regression analysis confirming that these factors significantly influenced economic resilience. In climate vulnerable areas, enhancing agricultural extension systems with climate advisories, training farmers, providing institutional support and creating location-specific adaptation strategies will significantly augment the capability of farmers to respond to climate shocks and maintain agricultural livelihoods.