Economic and Social Impacts of Drought and its Consequences on Rural Households in Sistan Region

Drought that is known as one of the natural disasters, has affected climate equilibrium of Sistan region during the years 1998 to 2001, and has made various economic and social impacts. Theobjectives of this study were to investigate the impacts of the drought on income, investment and employment in agricultural sector and also on migration and food security of the households in the region during that period. Data were collected through a survay using 332 questionnaires designed for households and corresponding experts. The data were analyzed by various descriptive and inferential statistics such as average, mode, mean, correlation coefficients, cross tables analysis. The results showed that there was low impact of drought on permanent exit of labour from agricultural sector. Theincomeof most of the households and also volume of investments decreased over the period. The number of livestock decreased even after the drought. The results also showed that 95.5 percent of the households could only meet their basic food needs and they could not afford to take into account the quality of foods. In order to reduce the drought impacts in the region, it is recommended to make arrangements such as developing infrastructures and corresponding investments, extension of water reservations and improving structure of decision–making process and decentralism.