Assessment of farmers’ resilience to drought and its influencing components: the case of Fars Province, Iran

Drought is a complex socio-natural hazard that increases in magnitude with climate changes. Fars province, in the south of Iran, as one of the agricultural poles of Iran, has experienced severe droughts in recent years. Therefore, the present descriptive-correlational research was conducted aiming at assessing farmers' resilience to drought within the province. Using a structured questionnaire, 420 farmers were surveyed following a multi-stage cluster random sampling method. Results of the research demonstrate that the farmers' social resilience levels to drought are slightly higher than the average. Furthermore, three independent variables including adaptive capacity, job satisfaction, and learning capacity have the highest positive and significant correlations with social resilience. In addition, the results of multiple regression analysis showed that seven variables including adaptive capacity, perceived social support, learning capacity, social capital, coping capacity, job satisfaction, and drought perception had positive and statistically significant effects on the farmers' resilience to drought. When considered together, these seven predicting variables account for about 41% of the variance of the dependent variable. In general, the results of this research can be useful in better understanding the social aspects of agricultural societies and increasing planners' awareness concerning farmers' resilience to climatic and environmental challenges.