Farmers Resilience in Drought Prone Area A Study in Kalaburgi District Karnataka State

Abstract

Agriculture contributes the largest part of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in India. A large portion of Indian rural families depend on agriculture and farming as the primary occupation. The drought with respect to climate variability impacts agriculture sector, especially on key crops such as wheat, rice, sugarcane, and vegetables. India being an agrarian country has around 55 per cent of the population depending on agricultural activities directly or indirectly for their livelihood. The agricultural livelihood activities of marginal and small farmers are affected through the loss of assets, loss of food sources, and loss of employment or income-earning opportunities. In India, 65 percent of agricultural activities depend on rain fed agriculture. The present study was conducted in a rain fed agricultural zone. Nearly 70 percent of farmers depend on the rains while the remaining depends on other irrigation facilities like open well, bore well etc, the present study is carried out in the Kalaburgi district of Karnataka state, where the drought is a common phenomenon of rural villages. The region also gets affected by drought frequently due to its geographical location. This study aimed to understand the socio-economic conditions of the drought affected farmers, to analyze the farmers resilience and coping strategies among different categories of farmers, to study the impact of drought and coping strategies in drought situation and to suggest policy measures at the macro and micro level to further strengthen farmer s resilience towards drought. This study is based on primary data and utilised a mixed research methodology, which incorporates both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data was collected through in-depth interviews, case studies and observation. This study used the Slovin s formula for obtaining the sample size. The data was collected from six villages in Kalaburgi District. Based on Government of Karnataka data of population of each village, for the study stratified random sample of 381 farmer