Investigating and Analyzing the Adaptation of Farmers in Zayandehrud River Basin in Facing Drought and Identifying its Solutions

Nowadays, drought as the most destructive and damaging consequence of climate change has increasingly affected the earth. One of the most important strategies for dealing with devastating droughts is understanding and adapting to them, which can greatly reduce their negative effects. The aim of this quantitative and applied research is to examine and analyze the adaptation status of farmers to drought and identify solutions to deal with it through a case study among farmers in the Zayandehrud river basin  in Isfahan province. The statistical population of the research consists of all farmers in the east of Zayandehrud basin (villages of Nokhodabad, Hasanabad, Haratmeh, Joshan, and Mazrae Cheh) of whom 200 were selected as a completely random sample to achieve the research objectives. The main tool for collecting data in this study was a researcher-made questionnaire. For analyzing the collected data, the mean comparison test, frequency distribution table, and exploratory factor analysis method were used in SPSS software. The results of the research showed that the calculated mean for the adaptation of farmers to drought was 2.165, statistically significantly lower than the average level at a confidence level of 95 percent. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that six main factors are identified as the most important key solutions for improving how farmers are adapting to and coping with drought in Zayandehrud basin, explaining 71.88 percent of the dependent variable variance. These factors, in order of importance, are financial-organizational policies (17.533 percent), educational-promotional policies (12.946 percent), technical-agricultural policies (12.421 percent), infrastructure (10.697 percent), strengthening social institutions (9.188 percent), and enhancing local participation (9.096 percent).