Impacts of Drought on Socio-Economic Conditions of Paddy Farmers in Guilan Province, North of Iran

The purpose of this study was to survey impacts of droughton Socio-economic conditions of Guilan Paddy farmers.Besides recognizing these impacts, it ranked them accordingto the viewpoint of the Paddy farmers. It was of the descriptive-correlation type. Questionnaire was the main tool of thisstudy. To determine the validity of questionnaire used of commentsof panel experts and reliability of the questionnaire byusing of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 89%. The informationgathered by using the survey method. The statistical populationwas the farmers whom their basic career was production ofrice and according to the information of Agricultural Organization(Jihad-e-Keshavarzi) in 2009 was caught by drought. By usingthe proportional stratified sample method, 270 of theseindividuals were chosen and filled in the questionnaires. Inorder to determine the scale of drought impacts, year 2008 (ayear which paddy farmers had ensured water reservoir) comparedto year 2009 (a year which paddy farmers were caught bydrought and water shortage). The results indicated that droughtcaused decrease in white-rice production for 312 kg per hectare.This problem also caused increase in costs, decrease in income,decrease in saved money, and increase in anxiety, mentalproblems etc on Guilan paddy farmers. Other findings indicatedthat there hasn’t been statistically significant relationshipbetween age and farming experience of paddy farmers withthe amount of damage. But, there was statistically significantrelationship between literacy, type of water resource and takingextension advices with amount of damage.