Environmental and Socio-Economic impacts of Drought from the viewpoint of Guilan Paddy farmers, North of Iran

A comprehensive assessment of drought environmental and socio-economic impacts provides critical information to rational decisions supporting drought mitigation policies and programs. The objectives of this study were to survey environmental and socio-economic impacts of drought in Guilan Province, and prioritize them from the viewpoint of paddy farmers. This study was a descriptive-correlation study, and a questionnaire was the main tool used. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by a panel of experts. The reliability of the questionnaires using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 85%. The statistical population was the farmers whose basic profession was production of rice and who faced drought according to the information of Agricultural Organization (Jihad-e-Keshavarzi) in 2009. By using the proportional stratified sample method, 270 of these individuals were chosen to complete the questionnaires. The results indicated that drought, in addition to reducing the white-rice production to 312 kg per hectare, also caused some environmental and socio-economic impacts from the viewpoint of paddy farmers. Prioritizing impacts of drought were economic, environmental and social respectively. Other findings indicated that there were no statistically significant relationships between age and environmental and social impacts and between land ownership type and economic and social impacts. But, there was a statistically significant relationship between age and literacy level and economic impacts, literacy level and social and environmental impacts and between land ownership types and environmental impacts of drought.