The Role of Farmers’ Perception on Vulnerability and Decision to Change Livelihoods in Drought Crisis: A Case of Komijan County

Changing livelihoods is one of the strategies for farmers' adaptation to drought. In this regard, current empirical research was conducted to investigate the role of farmer's perception of vulnerability and adopt livelihood change strategy. This applied research was conducted as a survey research. The statistical population is comprised of thousands of rural households living in the Komijan County, which have been subjected to drought over the past ten years. Which of them, 200 households were randomly selected using Daniel's sampling formula. The main statistical method was the logistic regression. Farmers' perception of vulnerability and the problems caused by changing livelihoods was independent variables and dichotomous variable, decision to change livelihood, were the dependent variable of the research. Estimated logit function showed 69.2% classification accuracy. Based on the mentioned function, it was found that the upper limit of the perceived vulnerability could result in reduction in the tendency to change livelihoods and to adopt a passive strategy (remaining in the current situation). It was also found that farmers' awareness of potential financial risks in the process of changing livelihoods is not an obstacle. It was also found that the lack of educational support for changing livelihoods prevented the change in livelihoods.