<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The number of serious and extreme drought events is increasing, causing a serious threat to ecosystems, food security, livelihood security, social stability, and sustainable development. The Marathwada region of India is highly vulnerable to the impacts of drought and has been severely affected because of consecutive drought events from 2012 to 2016. This article aims to understand the rural farming household’s perceptions of the impacts of drought, their adaptation and mitigation measures, and also attempts to assess the level of satisfaction of rural households with government mitigation measures. This study is based on primary and secondary sources of data collected from 192 farming households following a structured questionnaire survey. The survey reveals that crop failure, livelihood insecurity, declines in livestock production, livestock loss, water conflicts, and problems in meeting agricultural expenses, increased school dropout rates of children, and both psychological and health problems, were the most immediate socio-economic impacts of drought. The various environmental impacts of drought perceived by farmers included depleted groundwater levels, poor groundwater quality, land degradation, a decrease in seasonal river flows, degradation of pastures and declines in soil fertility. It was found that small and medium sized farmers were highly affected by drought compared with marginal and large scale farmers because of their high dependency on agriculture and poor adaptation strategies.</p></abstract>

The number of serious and extreme drought events is increasing, causing a serious threat to ecosystems, food security, livelihood security, social stability, and sustainable development. The Marathwada region of India is highly vulnerable to the impacts of drought and has been severely affected because of consecutive drought events from 2012 to 2016. This article aims to understand the rural farming household’s perceptions of the impacts of drought, their adaptation and mitigation measures, and also attempts to assess the level of satisfaction of rural households with government mitigation measures. This study is based on primary and secondary sources of data collected from 192 farming households following a structured questionnaire survey. The survey reveals that crop failure, livelihood insecurity, declines in livestock production, livestock loss, water conflicts, and problems in meeting agricultural expenses, increased school dropout rates of children, and both psychological and health problems, were the most immediate socio-economic impacts of drought. The various environmental impacts of drought perceived by farmers included depleted groundwater levels, poor groundwater quality, land degradation, a decrease in seasonal river flows, degradation of pastures and declines in soil fertility. It was found that small and medium sized farmers were highly affected by drought compared with marginal and large scale farmers because of their high dependency on agriculture and poor adaptation strategies.

Impact of drought, farmers’ adaptation strategies and administrative mitigation measure in the Marathwada region, India

Environmental & Socio-economic Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The number of serious and extreme drought events is increasing, causing a serious threat to ecosystems, food security, livelihood security, social stability,...

Impact of drought, farmers’ adaptation strategies and administrative mitigation measure in the Marathwada region, India

Published Online: Jun 12, 2020

Page range: 1 - 11

Received: Dec 08, 2019

Accepted: May 19, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2020-0007

Keywords
drought, agriculture, drought impacts, adaptation strategies, administrative mitigation measures, Marathwanda region

© 2020 Sagar Khetwani et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Impact of drought, farmers’ adaptation strategies and administrative mitigation measure in the Marathwada region, India

Published Online: Jun 12, 2020

Page range: 1 - 11

Received: Dec 08, 2019

Accepted: May 19, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/environ-2020-0007

Keywordsdrought, agriculture, drought impacts, adaptation strategies, administrative mitigation measures, Marathwanda region

© 2020 Sagar Khetwani et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
drought, agriculture, drought impacts, adaptation strategies, administrative mitigation measures, Marathwanda region