Livelihood Security of Farmers under Dust in Susa County

Iran is frequently exposure to dust emerging in terms of locating in dry and semi-dry areas of the world. Dust phenomenon is a form of atmospheric hazards which occurred with undesirable impacts and as an environmental shock threaten the livelihood security of the human. Dust storms usually have negative effects on the health, economy and environment as well as huge damages on different productive sectors especially agriculture. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the livelihood security of farmers under dust in Susa County. The study was conducted in two stages; the first stage involved mapping dust risks based on its severity and incidence. The required data of this stage was collected through a focus group discussion meeting with informant farmers who purposefully selected from Susa County. Findings of the first stage were used to conduct a survey at the second stage. The population of interest in this stage consisted of farmers living in Susa county (N: 5924) using cluster random sampling method and a sample of 254 farmers was selected based on Krejcie & Morgan Table. The instrument was a questionnaire. The risk mapping results showed that the most sever damages of dust were related to economic, social and environmental dimensions, respectively since the highest incidence of dust effects were associated to environmental, social and economic sectors. Similar and confirmatory results were observed through the survey part. In addition, farmers’ livelihood security was not favorable. Social security of each individual was higher than his economic and environmental security. Based on the results of cluster analysis, the farmers could classified into three groups (clusters) due to the incidence and severity of the dust and there was significant difference between each group in terms of environmental, social and economic dimensions of security.