Evaluating the Effectiveness of Farmer's Coping Strategies against Drought

Sulduz rural district compared with previous decades has been faced with drought. It locates in West Azerbaijan province and south of Lake Uromia. In this district, farmers used various actions to coping with drought such as: planting crops that requires less water, Insurance of agricultural products and digging wells. In this study, the term coping strategies are used to represent any measurement of farmers in order to decrease the effects of drought on their farming system.
This is a descriptive- analytical study and data was gathered by questionnaire. The studied population is a Sulduz rural district, which was selected based on the ranking of ten villages with drought high risks. Data were gathered by filling 300 questionnaires randomly and analyzed by using statistical methods.
Findings: The results of the present study showed that there is a difference in the effectiveness of coping strategies in studying villages so that in half of the studied villages they decreased the consequences of draught, but in other villages, drought has led to adverse consequences caused to irreparable economic, social and environmental effects.
According to the data analysis and findings of this study, we can conclude that the same strategies along with different natural, economic and social factors have different effects on the body of agricultural economy. Then, in order to improve the effectiveness of any strategy, we have to consider the other factors in the implementation phase.