Assessing farmers’ perception based composite drought vulnerability in Godavari Middle Sub-basin, India

Abstract

Climate change has increased the frequency and intensity of drought in various parts of the world. Godavari Middle Sub-basin of India has been experiencing significant change in rainfall, maximum and minimum temperature. Farmers of Sub-basin depend on mercy of rainfall for their cultivation. Occurrence of drought lead to farmers suicide due to crop failure and losses of agricultural production. Therefore, composite drought vulnerability assessment is essential in the Sub-basin. This paper makes an initial attempt to quantify composite vulnerability to drought using socio-economic and environmental indicators at household level. Stratified random sampling was utilized to collect primary data. A total number of 450 households were surveyed. The composite vulnerability index calculation was based on 5 domains namely economic, social, environmental, ecological, adaption and mitigation strategies. Results revealed that highest drought vulnerability was found in marginal farmers among all the types of farmers due to high climate change vulnerability and low adaptation strategies. Low level of education, low annual income and high dependency on local money lenders were the main causes of high drought vulnerability for marginal farmers. High adaptation strategies helped large farmer to mitigate the impact of drought. The adaptations and mitigation strategies encompassed change in crops, diversification of crops, keeping land unsown after the possibility of drought, change in traditional irrigation practices to sprinkler and drip irrigation, change in crop calendar and sowing of drought-tolerant crops. Community-based preparedness planning could be effective to mitigate the impact of climate change induced drought vulnerability in Godavari Middle Sub-basin.