Coping With Drought in a Changing Climate: An Empirical Analysis of Farmers’ Adaptive Behavior in North-West Balochistan

Pakistan is ranked the 8th most vulnerable country to climate change in the Global Climate Risk Index Report, posing a serious threat to food security. The objective of this article is to assess the coping and adaptive behavior of farmers to climate induced drought in the North-West of Balochistan. The paper utilizes both primary and secondary data. The primary data is collected using 377 sample-size (households) through random sampling technique. The paper also employed multiple regression model to identify the factors influencing farmers adoptive and coping behavior for drought disasters. The results reveal that farmers tried on their own without any support to cope with long persistent spells of drought by using pipes for watering, dividing their gardens into small plots, giving water at night time, preserving stock supplies to adopt to the climatic changes however, at the same time, they sold their land and assets to cope with the situation. The results further reveal that despite selling their assets and land, people have migrated towards urban centers due to single sources of income. The multiple regression model indicates the most significant variables affecting the farmers coping and adaptive behavior for drought. These variables include age of the household head, employment occupation and daily wages occupation. The paper provides policy guidelines for provision of opportunities for diversified sources of income, capacity building, providing extension credit services to the farmers for better adoption that may increase the resilience of the farming communities to climatic risks.