Title: Drought Coping Strategies in Rajasthan
1Drought Coping Strategiesin Rajasthan
- Dr. Dalbir Singh,
- Seva Mandir, Udaipur, India
2Objectives
- 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.
3Methodology
- 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.
4Study Area
5Agro-Climatic Zones in Rajasthan
6Economic Impact Agriculture Loss
Source Field Survey
7Economic Impact- Livestock loss
8Economic Impact - Average Household Income
9Economic Impact- sources of household income()
10Social Impact Status of Consumption Expenditure
Across the Regions
11Social ImpactPer Capita Monthly Consumption of
Food items (kg)
Source Field Survey and State level estimates
were from Dyson and Hanchate, 2000
12Social Impact Expenditure
13Drought 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
14Strategies-Cropping Pattern
Source Field Study
15Strategies Land use Pattern
Source Field Study
16Strategies-Disposal of Assets
Source Field Study
17Strategies Migration
18Institutional Interventions in Drought Mitigation
Programme
19Lessons 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.
20Lessons 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.
21Conclusions -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.
22Conclusions -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.
23Conclusions 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.
24Conclusions 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.
25Policy 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.
26Policy 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.