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Determinants of farmers’ choice of coping and adaptation measures to the drought hazard in northwest Balochistan, Pakistan

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Abstract

This study identifies the coping and adaptation behavior of the farm households and also examines the factors that influence farmers’ choice for drought-induced adaptation strategies. The study employs a multivariate probit model on 215 farm households’ survey data from northwest Balochistan, Pakistan. The findings reveal that the farmers have shown considerable fortitude in coping with the impacts of drought on their agro-based practices and employed several adaptation initiatives both at on-farm and off-farm levels. These include crop management, water management, adjustment in agricultural inputs, income diversification, economization of expenditure and consumption smoothing, migrating to other places to seek alternative sources of income, assets depletion, and borrowing. Empirically, it is depicted that landholding, annual income, livestock ownership, credit access, farmer-to-farmer extension, GOs/NGOs support increase the probability of farmers’ decision to cope and adapt better with drought hazard. This study implies for specific policy and practice-oriented solutions in order to cope with and adapt in drought situation.

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Acknowledgement

Funding support for this study was provided by the University of Balochistan, Pakistan and Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand through funds allocated to a PhD scholarship for the first author. The authors greatly appreciate the help of Muhammad Yousaf, Amir Muhammad, Muhammad Younus, and Syed Ameenullah during the field survey. We are also thankful to all the anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments and suggestions for improving the quality of this paper.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Ashraf.

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Ashraf, M., Routray, J.K. & Saeed, M. Determinants of farmers’ choice of coping and adaptation measures to the drought hazard in northwest Balochistan, Pakistan. Nat Hazards 73, 1451–1473 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1149-9

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