chapter-5: field study on drought...

Chapter-5: Field Study on Drought Vulnerability

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CHAPTER-5: FIELD STUDY ON DROUGHT VULNERABILITY

5.1 Objectives of the present Study

Disaster management has been a multi-disciplinary subject. The research study, as of now,

has primarily been focused on its scientific, technical, social aspects and very few on the

management issues. There is hardly any work on public private partnership especially in

Indian context. Although, it has been felt that synergy of public and private efforts have

much greater promise. It is important to examine a framework of disaster management in

India based on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) and highlight those factors which

could strengthen PPP in disaster risk reduction. The present study aims at filling up this

gap and identifying those factors, which could bring public & private efforts together to

address disaster management issues.

It is therefore important to study the following aspects, from management perspectives, to

put to use more effectively PPP framework as well as the high-end technology like space

for disaster risk reduction.

i. Based on the case studies, examine the existing framework of disaster

management both in public and private sectors and placing focus on PPP

perspectives;

ii. Using primary data, study the impact of natural disasters on the resilience and

coping of the rural down the line poor community;

iii. Highlight the role of technologies in disaster management with specific focus to

gaps in the large-scale operationalization of space applications by establishing

harmony with governmental policies and institutional arrangements.

It is important to examine how the efforts of government and private sectors have reached

down the line to the community level. The gap between the efforts made by public and

private sectors and benefits accrued to the stakeholders provides the effectiveness. It also

brings out the management issues for bridging the gaps. In view of this, a field study has

been conducted in perennially drought-prone Kolar district of Karnataka. The primary


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data has been generated through sampling and structured questionnaires.

The objective of the study “Impact assessment of drought on farmers”, in reference to

identifying the key management issues based on primary data. Specific focus has been

placed on quantifying:

� Agricultural Impact

� Economic Impact

� Social Impact

The scope has been limited to three villages of Kolar district, Karnataka i.e. Debenhalli,

Kamanahalli and Kothur.

5.2 Methodology

5.2.1 Sampling Plan

To assess the impact of drought on farmers, first the exploratory research was done to

find the facts about drought. International frameworks were studied to see the standards

adopted worldwide in this direction. The various indicators that are used to judge the

intensity, as well as used in declaration of drought vary over the countries. On the basis

of study and considering the factors pertaining to India, questionnaire was formed to

assess the impact through descriptive research. The framework of the questionnaire is

based on U.S model to find the impact of drought.5.1 Thus the plan consisted of first a

thorough exploratory research followed by descriptive research by conducting a survey

through questionnaire. The questionnaire is attached in Appendix-A.

5.2.2 Study Area: Drought Prone Kolar Dist. of Karnataka State

The water resources in India depend on the monsoons, 70% of which occur during the

monsoon season (June-November). Besides this, there are large tracts of land depending

entirely on localized showers for their water needs, which cannot be relied upon. This

will completely upset the rather rigid agricultural programme of the Indian farmer

resulting in situations coming under the definition of drought.


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The drought-affected, north-south

zone comprising 111 taluks in

Bijapur, Belgaum, Gulbarga,

Raichur, Chitradurga, Tumkur and

Kolar districts with less than 700

mm annual rainfall lie in eastern

part of the State. This zone can be

further delimited into four zones of

drought intensity as, moderate, large,

severe and disastrous drought

conditions.

One third of Karnataka is constantly affected by drought. Based on various factors

responsible for causing drought conditions, the Kolar district was identified as one of the

chronically drought prone areas. Drought prone areas of Karnataka have delimited on the

basis of annual rainfall, rainfall variability, soil moisture characteristics, annual potential

evapotranspiration, water surplus and index of aridity (Barai & Naganna, 1978).

The Kolar region covering Kolar district was selected as the study area, mainly because,

according to the classification of drought in Karnataka, it has moderate drought with

semiarid conditions and is subjected to dryness. Kolar in 1980 had only 2-3% of the

normal annual rainfall of 730 mm. In such a drought-affected area, an effective drought

mitigation strategy needs to be evolved so that some assured supply of water is made

available. Kolar district is situated between 12° 46 ' and 13° 58 ' N and 77° 21 ' and 78°

35 ' E, with an area of 8236.5 km2.

The average rainfall of the district is 730 mm, about 70% of its occurring during the

southwest monsoon. September-October usually records the highest rainfall; which is

also associated with thunderstorms. These were wide variations in rainfall recorded over

a 50-year period. In 11 out of 50 years rainfall was less than 80% of the normal. Though

Fig 5.1: Research Team Talking to Farmers –

During Primary Data Collection


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the district as a whole did not record two consecutive years with rainfall less than 80% of

the normal, such occasions are known at individual stations.

From:

Groundwater Monitoring and Management (Proceedings of the Dresden Symposium, March 1987). IAHS

Publ. no. 173, 1990

5.2.3 Sampling Method

The sampling method used is stratified Convenience Sampling. Initially sample has been

divided under 4 strata according to their size of land holding and then farmers were

selected using convenience sampling method.

5.2.4 Sample Size

The sample consisted of 200 farmers spread over three villages. The sample households

were nearly 50% of the total number of households. The sample also comprises 10

technical experts and 30 administrative functionaries besides 200 actual suffer –villagers

for the study.

Fig 5.2: Village Formers and Community Centre visited during Primary Data Collection in Kolar Dist. of Karnataka


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5.2.5 Analysis Tool

Entire data collected from 200 farmers, 10 technical experts and 30 administrative

functionaries was fed into SPSS (Statistical Package). The data was properly coded,

discrepancies removed, variables assigned etc. Then the data was analyzed on the pre-

decided parameters.

5.2.6 Sampling

Seeing the past trends in frequency of drought and also the ease of access to location

Kolar district was chosen for conducting the survey. As it was not possible to conduct a

thorough survey in the entire district, three villages in the Boodhikote Hobli of the district

were chosen namely Kamanhalli, Debenhalli, and Kothur for the purpose of survey. The

profile of the households surveyed in the three villages is shown below one by one.

(A) Village: Kamanahalli

In all 28 households were surveyed out of a total of 60 households in the village.

Gender: There were more males than females interviewed in this village. The number of

males was 21 and that of female was 7.

Size of Land Holding: The farmers were equally spread over below 2 Acre and 2 to

below 5 Acre category comprising 35% of the population each. The rest two categories

had smaller share of population.

Table-5.1: Size of Land Holdingand Percentage of Formers

Slno Size of Land Holding Percentile (%)

1 Below 2 Acres 35.71

2 2 – 5 Acres 35.71

3 5 – 10 Acres 25.0

4 Above 10 Acres 3.57


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Size of the Family: The size of the family indicates the number of people that the

household needs to feed from the produce it manages during the year. The mean family

size in the village is 7.1786.

(B) Village: Debenhalli


Gender: There was almost equitable distribution among the two genders, with 20 males

and 18 females.

Size of Land Holding: The majority of the land holding size in the village is between 2-5

Acre comprising 53.57% of the farmers surveyed. The distribution in the other categories

is shown in the table below:

Table-5.2: Size of Land Holding and Percentage of Formers



2 2 – 5 Acres 53.57

3 5 – 10 Acres 25.0


Mean =7.1786 Std. Dev. =4.7066 N =28

Fig 5.3: Family Size Vs Household feed


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Size of the Family: The size of the family indicates the number of people that the

household needs to feed from the produce it manages during the year. The mean family

size in the village is 7.1025.

(C) Village: Kothur


Gender: Among the farmers surveyed there were 74 males and 60 females.

Size of Land Holding: The majority of the farmers belong to 2-5 Acre category

comprising around 52% of the population. The distribution among other categories is as

shown in the table below:

Table-5.3: Size of Land Holding and Percentage of Formers



2 2 – 5 Acres 52.27

3 5 – 10 Acres 22.73


Size of the Family: The mean family size of 6.38 in this village is comparatively lesser

than the other two villages.

5.3 Analysis

For the purpose of analysis, data of three villages is combined. To find the impact of

drought on farmers they are divided under four categories. This gives the relative effect

of drought on farmers depending on their size of land holding. The four categories are:

i) Below 2 Acres

ii) 2 to 5 Acres

iii) 5 to 10 Acres

iv) Above 10 Acres


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The impact is studied in terms of agricultural, economic and social effects. Along with

this, certain general observations are also made. Each impact has its own indicators

which indicate the intensity of the drought. The effect is represented for each indicator

for the above four listed heads.

5.3.1 Impact on Agriculture

The impact of drought on agriculture is studied in terms of various key indicators which

are being described below:

Rain-fed Vs Irrigated Area: This gives the picture of the vulnerability of land to the

failure of the monsoon. Farmers in the above 10 Acre category have maximum

percentage of their land holding as the irrigated land. Though farmers with smaller land

holding seem to have considerable land portion as irrigated, they use nearby river sources

as the source of irrigation, which dries during drought.

Mean = 6.3864 Std. Dev. =4.9894 N = 44

Fig 5.4: Family Size


109

Total amount Consumed vs. Produced: Farmers with smaller land holding manage to

be self sufficient in consumption i.e. they consume whatever they produce and this is the

reason for correlation being 1. For the other three categories, the correlation figure

increases with increasing land holding size. The reason for this behavior could be

explained as the people with larger land holdings tend to have large family size and thus

need more quantity for self consumption. Another reason is instead of selling in the

market they prefer to store the food grains in case of contingency in the subsequent years.


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Effect on production: There are two types of crops that a farmer generally grows: food

grains and cash crops. Food grains: generally grown in the rain-fed area. The production

of food grains falls nearly by 50% in the drought year. The three villages that were

visited had Ragi, Groundnut, Maize and Dal as the major crops being grown among the

food grains. Following graphs show the mean production of these crops in the normal and

drought year. Certain crops are being grown by farmers of specific category, not by all.

For example, Dal is being produced by farmers in the 5 to 10 Acre category only.

Fig. 7.5 Ragi Produced under Normal & Drought Conditions

6.43

11.21

19.74

34.67

3.57 4.077.91

13.17

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Below 2 Acres 2-5 Acres 5-10 Acres Above 10 Acres

Size of Land Holding

Mea

n R

agi P

rod

uct

ion

Ragi Produced under Normal Conditions Ragi Produced under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.7

Fig. 5.8

Fig. 7.6 Groundnut Production under Drought and Normal Conditions

6.5

10.44 10

22.78

4

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Below 2 Acres 2-5 Acres 5-10 Acres


Mea

n G

rou

nd

nu

t P

rod

uct

ion

Groundnut Production under Normal Conditions

Groundnut Production under Drought Conditions

Fig. 5.8


111

Cash Crops: Cash crops are grown in the irrigated area due to requirement of large

quantity of water. As these crops are grown in the irrigated area, the constant supply of

water is maintained, and hence their produce either remains same or is reduced by a small

amount in the year of drought. The major crops that were grown by the farmers in the

three villages visited are Paddy, Mulberry and Vegetables like Tomato, Potato etc.

Following graphs show the mean production of these crops in the normal and drought

year.

Fig. 7.7 Maize Production under Drought and Normal Conditions

1 1.33

8.75

0.5 0.5

3.62

0

2

4

6

8

10

Below 2 Acres 2-5 Acres 5-10 Acres


Mea

n M

aize

P

rod

uct

ion

Maize Production under Normal Conditions

Maize Production under Drought Conditions

Fig. 5.9

Fig. 7.8 Paddy Produced under Normal & Drought Conditions

12 15.89

50.44

168

12 8.95

34.44

157

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180



Mea

n P

add

y P

rod

uct

ion

Paddy Produced under Normal Conditions Paddy Produced under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.10


112

Source of Irrigation: There are various sources that can be used by the farmers for the

purpose of irrigation. Among them the ones that are being used by the farmers in these

three villages are open-well, bore-well, nearby River etc. Following graph shows the

count or the number of the particular source that are under usage. As the graph

represents, farmers in the marginal category do not have their own source of irrigation

and mostly depend on the use of the local river, which is accounted under ‘others’

category, while the farmers in the larger land holding have their own source of irrigation

(such as bore-wells).

Fig 5.12: Source of Irrigation

Fig. 7.9 Vegetables Produced under Normal & Drought Conditions

3000

9812

16938

36350

1500

9406

16562

36350

05000

10000150002000025000300003500040000

Below 2 Acres 2-5 Acres 5-10 Acres Above 10Acres


Mea

n V

eget

able

P

rod

uct

ion

Vegetables Produced under Normal Conditions

Vegetables Produced under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.11


113

Availability of Source: There are some sources of irrigation that are permanent in nature

like Bore well, while others may or may not be present during years of drought

depending upon the intensity of the drought. The following break-up indicates whether

the source of irrigation that farmers use is available in the year of drought or not. The

graph indicates that out of 60% of farmers who have some source of irrigation, 25% of

the resources do not work or are unavailable during drought and hence only 35% of the

farmers have some permanent source.

5.3.2 Economic Impact

This impact reflects the availability of funds to farmers both in a normal year and in a

year of drought. The impact also tries to analyze how the farmers cover up for the lack of

funds. The impact of drought on several economic indicators indicating the severity of

drought on the livelihood of farmers is explained as follows:

Income from Agriculture: The major occupation of farmers in all the three villages was

agriculture. For most of the farmers in the below 5 Acre category the food is barely

sufficient. They use it for their self consumption, only a small portion that includes cash

Fig. 7.11 Income from Agriculture Produced under Normal & Drought Conditions

12333 17381

49063

111429

8667 11933

34063

103429

0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000



Mea

n In

com

e fr

om

A

gri

cult

ure

Income from Agriculture under Normal Conditions

Income from Agriculture under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.13


114

crops like mulberry and paddy are being used for selling and hence agriculture may not

exactly be called as a source of income, but a source of living. The farmers in the above 5

Acres category though produce enough prefer to stock rather than selling, this is to

prepare themselves for the years of contingencies. Following graph shows the annual

income of the farmers from agriculture:

Income from Livestock: Income from livestock is not much affected until and unless the

drought is perennial. Needless to say that marginal farmer has very few livestock in

comparison to bigger farmers and hence their income from this source is also marginal.

Income from Agricultural Labour: After studying the impact what came out as

inference is that people in the below 2 Acre category who do agricultural labour in

normal as well as in drought years have reduction in their income from this source in the

years of drought. This is because they do not get the labour locally and they have to go to

far off places like Bangarpet and Bangalore to find labour. Though they get higher rate of

wages for the same work in these places but the expenses increase due to money spent in

transit.

Fig. 7.12 Income from Livestock under Normal & Drought Conditions

821311016

17692

26000

5650

10168

15462

25400

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000



Mea

n In

com

e fr

om

L

ives

tock

Income from Livestock under Normal Conditions

Income from Livestock under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.14


115

The farmers in the other three categories have more income from this source in the years

of drought as they normally do not go for agricultural labour generally because they have

to work on their own land. But now due to inability to work on their land they search for

labour and hence the income increases.

Fig. 7.13 Income from Agriculture Labour under Normal & Drought Conditions

24538

1510318353

15000

1865117192

21378 21000

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000



Mea

n In

com

e fr

om

A

gri

cult

ure

Lab

ou

r

Income from Agriculture Labour under Normal Conditions

Income from Agriculture Labour under Drough Condition

Fig. 5.15

Fig. 5.16


116

Income from Other Sources: Income from other sources remains almost constant in the

years of drought as most of the times they are not dependent on rainfall. These sources

include permanent job, tractors being lent for transportation, construction work etc. Only

some of the activities are agricultural dependent the impact of which is visible under the

farmers of 2-5 Acre category for whom the income reduces.

Loss of Revenue: As the three villages visited had agriculture as the primary occupation,

the major reason behind loss of revenue was crop failure. To some of them, who were

engaged in agricultural labour, loss was due to reduced labour both in terms of number of

days and reduced rate. This loss also accounted for increased expenses. As we can see

from the chart below, the loss from labour is mainly in case of the farmers with land

holding below 5 acres.

Though the produce of the crop in the irrigated area is not affected in the years of

drought, but the quality is affected and this leads to a drop in the prices the particular crop

can fetch. This leads to a loss in income.

Fig 5.17: Loss of Revenue due to Labour


117

The major reason behind crop loss was lack of water which in turn was due to less

rainfall and absence of irrigation facilities.

Insurance: The penetration of insurance was very low in all the three villages. Only 5

out of a total of 100 people who were interviewed had taken insurance earlier. The main

reason behind this was the low awareness of the insurance products. People also did not

have faith in the system i.e. they were not sure of getting the claims in case of calamity

and hence did not buy even though they were aware of its existence. The premium that

the farmers across various categories were ready to pay, if it is made available from a

reliable source is shown as follows:

� The majority of farmers in the below 2 Acre category are ready to pay a premium of

Rs 20-70 per month with the mean being Rs. 41.

� The majority of farmers in the 2 to Below 5 Acre category are ready to pay a

premium of Rs 25-175 per month with the mean being Rs. 78.

Fig 5.18: Premium – Below 2 Acre

Mean = 41.19 Std. Dev. = 38.73 N =21


118

� The farmers in the 5 to 10 Acre category have a mean of Rs 217 per month of

premium that they are ready to pay.

Fig 5.20: Premium - 5 to 10 Acres

Mean = 217.08 Std. Dev. = 447.35 N = 24

Fig 5.19: Premium – 2 to 5 Acres

Mean = 78.23 Std. Dev. = 81.25 N = 48


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� The farmers in the above 10 Acre category have a mean of Rs 228 per month of

premium that they are ready to pay. The highest that they are ready to pay is Rs 900

per month; this is because they have source of irrigation and their produce is not

much effected in the year of drought. So they are not skeptical about the produce over

years and hence not interested in buying insurance products.

Government Relief Funds: The awareness of the relief programmes that are run by the

government is very low in the villages. 8 out of 100 people had idea of the some

programme that was run in one of the several years of drought. These 8 people were

benefited under the Tomato relief scheme run by the government. The scheme was to

give relief to farmers, whose produce of Tomato was affected due to drought.

Government bought the low quality produce from farmers at fixed prices and thus

compensated for their loss.

All the 8 people who had taken relief complained of the slow reach of funds. One out of

these 8 also stated that the amount he received was insufficient.

Fig 5.21: Premium - Above 10 Acres

Mean = 228.57 Std. Dev. = 345.03 N = 7


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Effect on Livelihood: In the absence of funds during years of drought people opt for

certain alternatives to have sufficient money at hand for food, clothing and other

necessities. Few of the options are:

i) To sell land / assets ii) To sell livestock iii) Relocate to other areas which are not suffering from drought iv) Look for other job options v) Others

� Only 1 person out of 100 considered sale of asset, that also to pay back his loan. � A total of 14 people considered sale of livestock to generate funds, the distribution of

these 14 people across the four category of farmers is shown below:

� People have not relocated due to drought. They go out for finding work to nearby

villages in the years of drought and get back to their houses in the evening.

� For farmers who do not generally go for agricultural labour exercise this option in the

year of drought.

Fig 5.22: Land Holding vs Sale of

Livestock


121

� Other job options include carpentry, masonry etc. which farmers opt for in the

absence of any other alternative.

Fig 5.23: Opting for Agriculture Labour during Drought

Fig 5.24: Opting for Other Job Options during Drought


122

Loan Payment: The graph indicates the correlation among the installment of the loan

taken that the farmer is supposed to pay in a month and the amount that he actually pays.

Farmers in the marginal category usually take loan from locally available resources like

Self- help group or cooperative organizations, as they regularly visit these places, and

they are found to pay their installments on time. They may make defaults in a month and

then compensate for it in the next month. But overall the repayment may be considered

good. Farmers in the 5 to 10 Acre category are observed to have a co-relation of 1, which

means they are most regular in terms of repayment. Larger farmers i.e. the ones with land

holding in excess of 10 Acres have the most defaults, they take loans from the banks and

at times do no repay a single installment which leads to the NPA of banks in rural areas.

These loans range in Lakhs and are usually taken for buying agriculture equipment like

tractor etc.

5.3.3 Social Impact

The social impact indicates the effect on day to day life of people. It indicates how they

cope up with lower income during drought by affecting their livelihood. The effect on

various social indicators is shown below:

Fig. 7.23 : Correlation of Installment

0.50.39

1

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2



Fig. 5.25


123

Number of meals: Number of meals that a farmer takes normally during a day is 3,

during drought when there is not sufficient disposable income, people in the below 5

Acre category tend to have 2 meals per day. As people in the higher land holdings stock

the food items, there is no change in their food habit.

Water consumption: Water consumption falls for everybody during drought; the impact

is more severe on people with smaller land holding as they do not have any source of

irrigation and the community water resources also get dried up. So, these people have to

manage with lesser resources. The consumption falls nearly by 50%. On the other hand

farmers with larger land holdings start using water judiciously and hence their

consumption level is affected only marginally.

Fig 5.26: Number of Meals during Normal & Drought Year


124

Milk Consumption: The milk consumption is very low among farmers with marginal

land holdings. It is as low as 0.6875 liters per family for the farmers in below 2 Acre

category. This consumption further falls to 0.6240 during drought. The consumption

among the farmers in above 5 Acre category is comparatively higher and does not change

during drought.

Fig 5.27: Water Consumption during Normal and Drought Year

Fig 5.28: Milk Consumption during Normal and Drought Year


125

Effect on Labour Days: The number of days people do agriculture labour has a

significant effect on the income which in turn affects their livelihood. Three patterns

under this head are observed. People in the below 2 acre category normally work for

three or more days in a week but are able to get work only for two days during drought.

Second pattern consists of people in the 2 to 10 Acre category; they normally do not opt

for agriculture labour as they have their own land to work upon. But in the year of

drought due to drying of soil and non availability of water they are not able to do so; and

hence go to nearby villages or towns searching for work. The last pattern comprises of

people in the above 10 Acre land holding. They have continuous work on their land, one

or two people normally go for labour and that is not affected by drought.

Rate of Labour: People normally go to Bangarpet or Bangalore to work during drought.

Though they get higher wages or rate per day, the money does not help improve their

state as the extra money is spent in traveling to these places and also there is an increase

in other expenses. So at first it may look that they have more income during drought but

that is not true.

Fig. 7.27 Labour Days during Normal & Drought Year

3.19

1.5

1 0.86

2.38

2

1.54

0.86

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5



Mea

n L

abo

ur

Day

s

No. of Labour Days Worked during Normal Conditions

No. of Labour Dyas Worked during Drought Conditions

Fig. 5.29


126

5.3.4 Environmental Impact

Following are some of the Environmental Impacts that were observed in the drought

areas during the survey of farmers and officials:

• Increased desertification and damage to animal species: The degradation of the

land which is what drought causes, has a major impact on the environment causing

biodiversity loss and loss of productive capacity. For example, if current trends of soil

degradation continue in Africa and no other measures are being taken, they’ll end up

feeding only 25-percent of the country’s population.

• Damage to wildlife habitat, animal and plant species: Lack of water and lack of

food will have a great effect on animals and plants in the drought-affected areas.

• Diseases and increased predation: Diseases get established in a drought stressed

plant and the impact of the root rots may be significant. Usually, because of the hot

days and chilled nights, dew may form on the leaves of the plants causing humidity

and leaving them exposed to diseases. Also during drought periods, snakes have been

known to emerge and snakebites become more common.

• Increased number and severity of fires: Fallen branches, leaves, grasses and scrub

usually dry out and become highly flammable causing uncontrolled fires. That’s what

happens when there so much sun. South-east Australia is considered one of the most

fire prone areas of the world, common for sever bushfires.

Fig. 7.28 Rate of Labour during Normal and Drought Year

54.3

30.4

23.1

7.1

46.4

37.4

25.4

10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60


Siz e o f Land Hold ing

Mea

n L

abo

ur

Lab

ou

r R

ecei

ved

Rate of Labour Received under Normal Condit ions Rate of Labour Received under Drought Condit ions

Fig. 5.30


127

• Wind and water erosion of soils: According to vulnerability, drought creates

windblown dust bowls which erodes the landscape, damages terrestrial and aquatic

wildlife habitat.

5.4 Findings

On the basis of survey conducted and then the analysis carried out, following are the

findings that can be implemented at the ground level to alleviate the condition of the

farmers and to better equip them to face drought:

(A) Formers:

� People should well in advance be taught the alternative crops and techniques to

follow during drought.

� Water harnessing should be encouraged among farmers, this would help provide

continuous supply of water.

� As the villages visited had agriculture as the major occupation people had no option

than to migrate to neighbouring villages for work during drought. If some alternative

job options can be created in villages by providing training to farmers in some

specialized areas, people will have some source of income during drought.

� If the occurrence of drought is known a little earlier, food grains could be bought

nationally as well as internationally well in advance. This could lead to a lot of saving

for the concerned state.

� As people regularly visit Self-help Groups and also take loans from there, farmers

could be made aware of the crop insurance policies and products through them. It will

enhance the penetration of insurance.

� Insurance should be made more objective and simpler, to enable faster claim

settlement and increase the faith of people in the product.

� People have faith in the information through self help groups so that any information

regarding drought or its occurrence can be delivered through this channel.


128

(B) Experts/Official:

Based on the survey carried out using experts/officials questionnaire, the findings are

summarized below:

� Answers obtained for columns in the “Questionnaire for Officials” such as – Area

under cultivation, Production and Revenues do match well with the analysis presented

for farmers. With regard to Funds allocated from various sources, the apportionment

is highly variable and depends purely on the severity of the drought. The losses are

assessed in realtime and the available funds are distributed meticulously for the

various schemes introduced to salvage the situation. However there were

administrative issues purely at local level with regard to assessment, allocation and

distribution of funds and overall management of the disaster, which have to be

tackled by the state and central govt. for strict implementation of govt. schemes and

optimum utilization of funds for the disaster relief.

� The method generally looked at for declaring a short-term drought is ‘Hydrological’

since lack of sufficient rain is the first indication of the oncoming disaster. The long-

term drought declaration is based on the diminishing agricultural produce.

� The typical average annual rainfall in Karnataka is 1300 mm and this value for Kolar

is 744 mm, much less than the state-average. But most of the years the Kolar District

is becoming drought-prone due to annual rainfall level dropping below 300 mm.

� Information about the onset of drought is disseminated to the public soon after it is

received from the govt. sources/genuine early-warning systems. This information is

conveyed to people through self-help groups/NGOs and electronic media with

specific guidelines to be followed during the drought.

� The local officials make assessment of losses by conventional methods, prepare the

reports and send to the State Govt. The damage assessment is also done at the center-

level using the modern technology like satellite remote sensing. Soon after the

declaration of drought by the concerned authorities, government releases funds to the

State Govt. This fund is immediately utilized to cater to the needs of the affected

community. The amount of fund received by each farmer is fairly sufficient to

manage the situation, but due to improper management skills at the local level, there

is always a shortfall of funds and delays.


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� Likely that some extra employment opportunities crop up temporarily to execute the

schemes introduced by the Govt. in order to mitigate the disaster. The problem of

food scarcity is resolved by requesting State/Central Govt. for releasing additional

food grains for the affected area.

� A premium of Rs. 20/- per acre was found to be reasonable amount which the farmers

can afford. Even the statistical analysis given in the thesis confirms that farmers in

the category of under-2 acres land-holding have to pay Rs. 41/- on the average, and

those in the 5-10 acre category pay Rs. 228/- on the average.

� Self-help groups are more popular and can be very effective for communicating

various govt. schemes as well as awareness about insurance products to the farmers.

The present electronic media is not very effective for educating the farmers as this

media is mostly used for entertainment in rural areas. But small skits, ads and dramas

can always be forced in between these entertainment programs to enlighten the

farmers on various techniques that help in producing higher yield. The awareness

automatically increases with the level of education of farmers. Better education

facilities offered along with a mid-day meal every day should surely motivate the

farmers for further studies. This helps them learn the modern methods and techniques

of agriculture and adopt the same for their own benefit.

� Current generation young farmers are relatively more educated and pro-active in

adopting scientific methods and govt. policies for increasing the productivity.

� In case of acute shortage of food-grains during a draught, farmers naturally prefer

supply of sufficient food items that could last till the end of the crisis. But, if the

supplies in the shops are able to meet the demand, farmers may prefer monetary

compensation which they can spend scrupulously, and also can save something out of

that. This is the case with the category of lower land holdings farmers (<5 acre),

whereas farmers with higher land holdings, in addition to compensation in cash for

redressing the crop-losses, also look for long-term measures taken by the govt. for

mitigating effects of drought.

Overall there was a consistency in the outcome of analysis; there were however certain

complementariness identified when sample data comprising farmers were interpreted

independently. On the other hand, the analysis of data from technical experts and


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administrative functionaries revealed complementary/supplementary findings as listed

below.

Findings of 200 samples representing

farmers

Findings of 10/30 samples representing

experts/officials

• Coping issues were identified more

clearly

• Social impacts were clearly delineated

• Local issues were pinned down

• House hold variables/indicators were

well captured

• Variability of house hold indicators was

high

• Economic issues revealed better than

social and household indicators

• Insurance challenges especially with

regard to operational costs were clearly

identified

• Governmental plans related to drought

mitigation were better clarified

• Variability among the key findings was

less than household variability

It is important to highlight that findings were complementary and supplementary to each

other when aggregated from household variables to govt. policies, which makes this

analysis holistic.

5.5 Limitations

Following limitations were observed in the conduction of survey of finding the impact of

drought:

� About 200 formers are interviewed. As the farming community in India is very large,

the figures achieved in the analysis are just indicative in nature.

� Farmers are skeptical of providing information like income, produce etc., this is

because they are vary of losing their BPL cards. Thus, the figures given for

production and income in the survey will be on the lower end.

� As the region interviewed was in Karnataka, there was problem conversing with

people in their local language. Hence an additional person who knew the local

language had to be called upon while conducting the survey. This may have led

interviewer error to creep in.

chapter-5: field study on drought...

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