Determination Farmer's Vulnerability Patterns to Drought in Iran: Case Study of Bakhtegan Basin

Agricultural sector is the main water user in the country and it is the sector that suffers mostly during the period of drought. Since the vulnerability of farmers in drought periods is very high, this paper aims to investigate the vulnerability of farmers in Bakhtegan basin in Fars province and to determine the vulnerability patterns of the studied areas in the context of drought risk management. A sample of 276 farmers was selected using a multi-stage random sampling. For this purpose, first, by using the Me-Bar and Valdez method, the vulnerability of farmers in five dimensions was determined. Then, based on the results and using the data mining technique, ten distinct and independent vulnerability patterns were extracted. The results showed that in the process of determining vulnerability patterns, infrastructure vulnerability had the highest and psychological vulnerability had the least importance in determining vulnerability patterns. The findings of this study can help policy makers to reduce farmer's vulnerability to drought by improving the planning and application of appropriate risk management strategies.