Drought Coping Strategies in Rajasthan

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Drought Coping Strategiesin Rajasthan

• Dr. Dalbir Singh,
• Seva Mandir, Udaipur, India

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Objectives

• Assessment of socio-economic impacts of droughts
  on communities and households and to analyze the
  coping strategies in both short and long terms.
• Review of the past and current Government and
  Non-Government programs and initiatives in
  Drought mitigation in Rajasthan.

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Methodology

• To assess the impact of drought on socio-economic
  conditions of the village and household levels,
  multi-stage random sampling method was
  considered.
• The present study was conducted in eight
  different agro climatic regions. Keeping in mind
  the severity of drought conditions, two tehsils
  were selected randomly from each agro-climatic
  zone.
• From each tehsil/ block four representative
  villages were selected. From each village, twenty
  households representing different socio-economic
  categories of the households were selected.
• The selected households were grouped in four
  categories such as very poor, poor, medium and
  better off. These categories were made on the
  bases of annual income of the households.

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Study Area
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Agro-Climatic Zones in Rajasthan
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Economic Impact Agriculture Loss
Source Field Survey  
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Economic Impact- Livestock loss
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Economic Impact - Average Household Income
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Economic Impact- sources of household income()
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Social Impact Status of Consumption Expenditure
Across the Regions
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Social ImpactPer Capita Monthly Consumption of
Food items (kg)
Source Field Survey and State level estimates
were from Dyson and Hanchate, 2000
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Social Impact Expenditure
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Drought Coping Strategies

• Risk Minimizing Strategies
• Land Improvement and Land use pattern
• Mixed Cropping Pattern
• Mix Farming System
• Loss Management Strategies
• Disposal of Assets
• Use of Vegetation
• Institutional Arrangement
• Drinking Water Management Practices
• Caste System and Usage of Drinking Water
• Village institutions including Water Users
• Social Capital

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Strategies-Cropping Pattern
Source Field Study
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Strategies Land use Pattern
Source Field Study
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Strategies-Disposal of Assets
Source Field Study
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Strategies Migration
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Institutional Interventions in Drought Mitigation
Programme
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Lessons Learnt

• Limited presence of non-government institutions

• Conflicts within the society resulted in
  deterioration
• of natural resources.

• Village cohesion through establishing efficient
  institutional arrangement resulted to natural
  resources conservation and regeneration in
  sustainable manner.

• Emergence of new institutions like Village
  Development Fund that leads toward
  self-sufficiency.

• It is not essential that intervention in natural
  resources management favour poor considerably.

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Lessons Learnt, cont..

• Peoples participation is one of the important
  issues that play an important role in the success
  of any intervention.
• Efficient management of the Irrigation schemes
  can give the desirable resulted in improving the
  economic condition of the poor households.
• There exist gaps in case of property rights and
  ground realities that is the major problem for
  the intervention by any organization.
• Undefined use right on Grazing land/Cprs
• Due to lack of efficient marketing facilities
  rural artisans are exploited.

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Conclusions -Resource Base

• Availability of resources both man-made and
  natural, determines intensity of drought and
  capacity of the household in coping the adverse
  situation.
• Reliability and quality of the resources in
  general and water in particular is one of the
  major concerns that affect the living beings.
• The socio-economic conditions of the households
  are also determined by the agro-climatic
  conditions of the regions.
• The resource poor households have to depend on
  the non-farm activities for their livelihood
  whereas other households derive their income from
  both agriculture and service sector.

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Conclusions -Impact Assessment

• Peoples perception and their traditional
  considerations regarding drought and its
  emergence have their own importance.
• Agriculture one of the most affected sectors,
  which has the further adverse implications on the
  households. More than one-third decrease in
  cropped are is registered that resulted in more
  than two-third decrease in income from this
  sector.
• There is considerable loss to the livestock
  enterprise. Around 40 loss from this enterprise
  to households was recoded in terms of death of
  animal and sold out at the undesirable price.
• Decrease in household income is also recorded as
  one-forth of the income that earned during the
  normal period. Interestingly, poor households
  remained least effected in earning income as
  compared to normal period.
• Broadly, consumption of food items remained
  unaffected during drought conditions as compared
  to normal period.
• Drought has the strong environmental implication
  as depletion of resources both water and land
  based.

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Conclusions Coping Strategy

• Households adopt the strategies in such a way
  that may helpful in minimizing the risk factor
  that caused to uncertainties.
• The other strategies that are adopted by the
  households are loss management
• The institutional arrangement within and outside
  the households for minimizing the risk factor and
  managing the losses efficiently is one of the
  important instrument.

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Conclusions Institutional Arrangements

• The presence of government agencies is found
  largely in both drought proofing and mitigation
  programmes while presence of non-government
  institutions was limited.
• The different sections of the society have the
  different view point on drought mitigation
  programme as farming community prefer drought
  proofing activities and non-farming community
  like relief work in the respective areas.
•  
• Institutional breakdown at village level resulted
  in resource crises
• Involvement of the communities in planning and
  management of any development programme is
  essential for both government and non-government
  organizations initiatives.
• The emergence of new village institutions like
  Village Development Fund is important for
  empowering the village communities.
• Policies of the organizations are the major
  concerns for the implementation of drought
  mitigation programme.

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Policy implications Drought Relief work

• Availability and accessibility to the basic
  amenities.
• Early starting of relief work should be the
  priority of the institutions involved in drought
  mitigation programme.
•  
• Credit and input facilities to both farming and
  non-farming communities.

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Policy Implications -Drought Proofing Work

• There is urgent need to revive the traditional
  village institutions and strengthen them.
• Involvement of the peoples in the whole process
  of implementation of drought mitigation programme
  is essential.
• Selection of the sites for the installation
  projects should be pro-poor.
• Clarity in Property rights and ground realities.
• Non-farm activities should be developed keeping
  in view the local resources available along with
  the efficient marketing facilities.