Perception on Effect of Drought and Suggestions to Overcome Drought by Namakkal Farmers of Tamil Nadu State

Abstract

Severity of drought leads to reduction in agricultural production that may result in reduced income for farmers and agribusiness, increased prices for food and finally which leads to affect the livelihood of the farming community as well as this also pave way for negative deviation on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution of agriculture of the country. The study was conducted in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu state, with one of the objective to identify the perception of farmers towards the effect of drought and to document the suitable suggestive measures suggested by the farmers in different agro- ecosystem to overcome the drought. The simple random sampling method was used in the selection of 100 farmers each 50 belongs to annual and seasonal crops respectively. The findings revealed that considering various perception level of farmers in Namakkal district, more than 60.00 per cent of farmers perceived the effect of drought to the extent of 60.00 per cent and above in their farming situations like reduction in water level, cultivable area, change in planting dates and change in cropping pattern. Followed by nearly 54.00 per cent of respondents perceived the effect of drought to the same extent in the agricultural allied sector (i.e), Selling of livestock. Regarding suggestions to overcome drought, Majority of respondents (82.00%) suggested that proper guidance should be given to farmers regarding state and centrally sponsored schemes and policies and complex procedure of the scheme should be simplified as one of the major suggestions, followed by 75.00 per cent of respondents who had stated that faster and necessary arrangements should be taken to provide compensation /insurance for crop loss during drought.