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 drought on Socio-economic conditions of Guilan Paddy farmers. Besides recognizing these impacts, it ranked them according to the viewpoint of the Paddy farmers. It was of the descriptive- correlation type. Questionnaire was the main tool of this study. To determine the validity of questionnaire used of comments of panel experts and reliability of the questionnaire by using of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 89%. The information gathered by using the survey method. The statistical population was the farmers whom their basic career was production of rice and according to the information of Agricultural Organization (Jihad-e-Keshavarzi) in 2009 was caught by drought. By using the proportional stratified sample method, 270 of these individuals were chosen and filled in the questionnaires. In order to determine the scale of drought impacts, year 2008 (a year which paddy farmers had ensured water reservoir) compared to year 2009 (a year which paddy farmers were caught by drought and water shortage). The results indicated that drought caused 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, mental problems etc on Guilan paddy farmers. Other findings indicated that there hasn’t been statistically significant relationship between age and farming experience of paddy farmers with the amount of damage. But, there was statistically significant relationship between literacy, type of water resource and taking extension advices with amount of damage.