Coping with Drought

Abstract

The slow-onset disasters, like drought, consistently deplete farmers’ resources at a faster rate than they can be replenished. Drought has been a recurring phenomenon in the southern regions of Iran and it has repeatedly been a leading cause of declining production and great human suffering. In view of the fact that poor and small farmers are more vulnerable, it is expected that they would be the main victims of such conditions. Investigation of rural poor strategies in drought conditions and assessing the impact of the governmental interventions to mitigate the drought consequences, especially on the poor state, constituted the main objectives of this study. Case study was the research method and an in-depth interview was used as the main technique of data collection. Findings revealed that farmers’ attitude towards drought was mostly metaphysical rather than physical and environmental. Poor farmers were harshly affected by the drought. It hurt them not only because of their attitude or belief, but also because of their low socio-economical position. Moreover, governmental interventions worsen the poor farmers’ situation because they treated all the farmers’ homogeneously. Much of governmental supportive services were benefited by non-poor farmers. On the contrary, the poor farmers’ who were in dire need, benefited the least. Therefore, governmental interventions fail to support the poor farmers, because it considers all stratums similar and it only focuses on productive policies. Some recommendations are pre-sented at the end of the article based on research findings.