Assessing the Resilience of Rural Farmers to Drought and Identifying Livelihood Strategies (Case Study: Central Part of Shazand County)

Agriculture as the main source of livelihood for rural residents of the developing countries is inherently sensitive to climate variability and change. Among different climatic events, drought is frequently identified as a major threat to agricultural. In order to reduce the negative impacts of drought on livelihoods, increasing the resilience of farmers is necessary. Improving the sustainable livelihoods of rural people has received growing attention during last decades and is one of the main goals of sustainable rural development. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate and analyze the resilience of farmers and provide livelihood strategies in the central part of Shazand County based on random sampling of 12 villages. The aforementioned villages to assess the resilience, the four dimensions of economic, social, and institutional infrastructure based environmental were used based on the sustainable livelihood framework, was used. The findings of the study showed that the farmers' resilience to drought conditions is in unsustainable economic and institutional dimensions and in the environmental and social indicators of a stable situation. The results of cluster analysis method, five livelihood strategies for compensating and resilient farmers against drought including the first strategy for deep-seated agriculture and increasing productivity, second, third and fourth strategies for diversification into non-agricultural and domestic activities and ultimately the strategy. Fifth, based on the desire to migrate, was identified and presented.