Farmers’ Strategies for Drought Adaptation Based on the Indigenous Knowledge System: The Case of Iran

Abstract

Abstract Considering the widespread and cross-cultural effects of climate on various production sectors, environmental factors, and human societies, drought is nowadays regarded as one of the most important environmental challenges of the current century. Because of their close relationship with the natural environment and their limited opportunities, rural communities have long been exposed to drought, and farmers in dry and semiarid regions have been applying measures to adapt to and cope with it. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and identify farmers’ native methods to reduce the effects of drought. The research method was phenomenological and survey based. The population included villagers in Kangavar County, Kermanshah Province, in Iran. Sampling was done by the targeted and snowflake method. The data collection instrument was an in-depth interview in the qualitative section and a self-designed questionnaire in the quantitative section. The results showed that farmers used different measures for coping with and adapting to drought, including using no-tillage farming; uprooting trees with high water demands; hope and oblation; mulching; reducing, changing, and/or mixing livestock types (reaction behaviors); diversifying the sources of livelihoods; changing cropping patterns; correcting irrigation practices; changing planting time; seeding before the drought; and using water storage techniques (fractional behaviors). In addition, farmers had a weaker capability to cope with the environmental, economic, and social vulnerabilities than with drought. This presented the vulnerability of farmers to drought in all economic, social, and environmental spheres.