Study on the Perception of Farmers Towards the Resilience Capacities of Dry Farming Households of Ananthapuramu District of Andhra Pradesh, India

The concept of resilience in the context of dry farming households encompasses the ability of farmers to withstand, recover from, and adapt to the various shocks and stresses that affect their livelihoods. This study elicits and understands farmers' perceptions towards resilient capacities of dry farming households of Ananthapuramu district of Andhra Pradesh, India. A pre-tested and structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the farmers using a multi-stage random sampling technique. For this study, 120 sample farmers were selected and analysed. A five-point Likert scale (5- Strongly agree to 1- Strongly disagree) was employed to identify and rank farmers' perception towards challenges of their farm, Risk management strategies, Willingness to take risks than other farmers and Perception toward ability to cope with agricultural challenges. Similarly, Robustness, Adaptability and Transformability of the farmers were also identified and ranked. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. From the district, three mandals were selected, from each mandal, two villages were selected, and from each village, 20 farmers were selected, making a total sample of 120 farmers. The farmers’ risk perceptions towards their resilient capacities on financial, production, and environmental sources of risk were analysed by taking the weighted mean of each item and the mean score. The results showed that low market prices scored highest with a mean score of 4.08, and perceived robustness is more for managing their farms in a manner that enables quick recovery from shocks is a challenging task, as indicated by a mean score of 3.98. Perceived adaptability was more for ability to adopt new activities, varieties, or technologies in response to challenging situations was notably high this was evidenced by a mean score of 4.20. And perceived transformability is more for the perception of being in trouble if external circumstances were to drastically change, making it difficult to reorganise their farms, received a mean score of 3.21. Risk management strategies of farmers showed that ‘Worked harder to secure production in hard times’ ranked highest. Farmers perceived their farms to have often experienced negative consequences of agricultural challenges over the last 5 years, with a mean score of 4.10 and ranked first. Willingness to take risks was observed in the case of innovation. The study concluded that for farmers' perception towards the ability to cope with agricultural challenges, farmers perceived their farms to have often experienced negative consequences of agricultural challenges over the last 5 years. The farmers were willing to take more than other farmers in the case of innovation, which ranked first with a mean score of 3.33 and a standard deviation of 3.10.