Sustainability, Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Risks, Small Scale -Farming

Farmers frequently cope with risks due to the uncertainty of climatic conditions. Population growth, changes in agricultural policies, environmental regulations and the degradation of natural resources such as soil and water also present farmers with numerous challenges. Although farmers have experience in coping with a certain degree of uncertainty, increased climate variability and changes may cause severe problems. Drought in particular is a climatic disaster that creates substantial costs for farmers and affects their agricultural systems extensively. Drought is the most complex of all natural hazards, making the arid and semi-arid regions of the world vulnerable. Although drought has not been well documented, the resource-dependent sectors such as agriculture are the most vulnerable to the impact of this phenomenon. A review of the long-term annual precipitation trends indicated that drought had a worldwide return frequency of every 20e30 years. However, in the last 50 years, some countries such as Iran and Bangladesh have experienced approximately 27 and 19 drought events, respectively. Therefore, for arid and semiarid regions, drought is a recurrent feature that could lead to the loss of crop production, food shortages and starvation) if not managed appropriately. According drought impacts could be managed at macro (national), meso (local) and micro (village and household) levels. However, the micro-level management (i.e., what the farmers do in response to drought) is of great importance. A review of the studies of farmers’ decision-making in response to climate variability revealed that most research has focused on the decision event and not on the entire process argued that the wrong assumption of farmers’ homogeneity neglected different aspects of decision-making in response to drought. Also indicated that farmers made different decisions when utilizing the same data. Additionally, many studies have focused on single strategies that were used to mitigate drought. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the combination and sequence of coping strategies that are used to mitigate drought. Concentrating on the decision-making process could help policy makers assess the needs and prioritize interventions, as well as enable farmers to efficiently manage drought. Farmers utilize various strategies to reduce the impacts of drought. Some strategies have a limited impact on drought mitigation. Some practices also increase farmers’ woes during drought. In addition, when resources (natural, physical and financial) are scarce, the need for an accurate appraisal of coping strategies becomes acute. Therefore, outcome prediction (i.e., the efficacy of mixed coping strategies) is a critical issue in drought management. Consequently, this study is concerned with the description of the farmers’ decision-making process and decision outcomes. First, the impacts of drought on the agricultural production in arid or semi-arid countries, specifically Iran, are described. Then, the farmers’ decision-making process during drought is explained then, the farmers’ decision-making process during drought is explained. The focus then shifts to the design and explanation of the proposed research methodology, followed by an analysis of the results and concluding remarks. Approximately $84 million. Under such conditions, Iran imported significant amounts of wheat and rice, and it seemed likely that continuous drought would lead to import expansion. Furthermore, dairy production also experienced a decrease of 8.2 percent during this same period. The drought of 2008e2012 was one of the worst on record. This drought drastically reduced the cultivation area, even in irrigated lands. During this time, the river waters fell to critical levels. Most of the traditional ground water irrigation systems (qanats) either completely dried up or experienced a reduced water release. In the central and southern regions of Iran, the cultivation areas were reduced by half during the spring-summer seasons due to these low water levels. During this period, farmers experienced rising costs due to the use of management strategies such as deepening wells and constructing water storage in order to cope with the drought. Other economic impacts that were experienced by the farmers were increased livestock feeding expenses, increased interest rates, and increased debts. These depleted resources and diminished incomes forced those in rural areas to migrate to the cities in pursuit of jobs. Important factors, as previously mentioned, are livelihood risks that so far have not been given much attention so this research was to Patterns Design Out of the Challenges of Livelihood Sustainability of Small-Scale Farmers in Drought Conditions in Kurdistan Province. The statistical population consisted of small farmers in Kurdistan province who were in drought conditions. The research paradigm is qualitative in two ways: Grounded theory and phenomenology.  Using theoretical sampling, 29 of them were selected for study. The research data were collected using a deep interview and group discussion and analyzed with three open, axial and selective coding methods. The results of the research in the phenomenology of Livelihood Behavior Behaviors included 16 primary codes and classified into adaptive behaviors, resiliency and non-response. Also, the results of studying the livelihood sustainability challenges of small scale farmers in the form of foundation data methodology included 61 initial codes. Finally, in order to design a model out of the challenges of the stabilization of 9 mechanisms (economic, productivity, production factors, services and facilities, Education and information, management and capacity building, culture, technology, formations, and equilibrium) were designed based on the challenges of sustainability and incorporated into the Strauss model.    Keyword: Sustainability, Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Risks, Small Scale -Farming