TY - JOUR A1 - Khalili, Niloofar A1 - Arshad, Muhammad A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Farajzadeh, Zakariya A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Drought shocks and farm household consumption behaviour: Insights from Fars province of Iran JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction N2 - Drought is one of the most important shocks that has affected many farm households in rural Iran. This paper presents cross-sectional quantitative research with a micro-level analysis of the impacts of drought shocks on food and non-food expenditures of smallholders in rural Iran. Quantile regression model was applied to analyse the data obtained from 300 small farmers in the county of Marvdasht in Fars province, Iran. The results show that households who experience moderate and severe drought, apply a combination of different strategies, which are usually used to deal with idiosyncratic shocks and covariate shocks. A reduction in consumption expenditures is not the only and the first choice coping strategy but is one of the main strategies used by most drought-affected households. Our results further indicate that the non-food expenditures of smallholders in severe drought-affected villages are negatively affected by drought, however, food expenditures are not significantly affected. Non-food expenditures of households with overall lower consumption level were significantly affected. These findings point out the importance of the provision of compensation schemes for smallholders and the designing and implementation of coping mechanisms including non-agricultural job opportunities in drought-affected areas of Fars, Iran. Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7359 SN - 2212-4209 IS - 66 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Susan Sam, Anu A1 - Abbas, Azhar A1 - Surendran Padmaja, Subash A1 - Raghavan Sathyan, Archana A1 - Vijayan, Dhanya A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Kumar, Ranjit A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Flood vulnerability and food security in eastern India: A threat to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction N2 - The food security situation in India has improved due to economic growth, increased agricultural productivity, public policies and hunger eradication programmes. Nevertheless, much of India's population still suffers from hunger and poverty. Floods obstruct agricultural production; destroy infrastructure; and disrupt livelihoods, normal services, health care, etc. In this way, floods ultimately affect households' food security. We examined household food security in flood-prone rural areas of India in a more extensive way than in previous studies by constructing an index that incorporates various factors of the food security dimensions. Factors determining the level of flood-prone households' food security were also analyzed. By polychoric principal component analysis, an aggregate food security index was constructed. The food security score was regressed on different explanatory variables to evaluate their effect on the overall food security situation in the study area. Our results showed that three-fourths of the respondent households faced food security issues to varying degrees. Family type, physical assets and employment scheme showed positive impacts on the level of food security of the respondents. In contrast, households with female household heads and those suffering losses of property due to floods were adversely affected in terms of negative impacts on overall food security. The results suggest the need for the adoption of integrated strategies to effectively address food security issues amidst the increased severity of flood events. The study findings are useful for policy makers in India and countries with similar backgrounds to tackle the food insecurity brought about by flood hazards. KW - Odisha KW - Availability KW - Access KW - Stability KW - Utilization KW - Vulnerability Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7383 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 66 IS - 66 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ullah, Ayat A1 - Arshad, Muhammad A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Zeb, Alam A1 - Mahmood, Nasir A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Socio-economic analysis of farmers facing asymmetric information in inputs markets: evidence from the rainfed zone of Pakistan JF - Technology in Society N2 - Information asymmetry plays an important role in the non-adoption of modern agricultural inputs like improved seeds, pesticides and fertilizers etc. Therefore, this study investigated the role of farmers’ socio-economic attributes and farm level characteristics in avoiding asymmetry of information in agricultural input markets (i.e. exaggerated prices and low quality). The approach captures the farm level heterogeneity and complexity that may help the authorities in strengthening existing market regulations to control price and quality disparities. We analysed 395 randomly selected farm households using multinomial logit model. We found that farmers with large landholding size are less likely to face quality and more likely to face price information asymmetry. Farmers with higher education, more physical assets and better access to other sources of information are less likely to face both quality and price information asymmetry. Borrowers as compared to purchasers are more likely to face information asymmetry on prices of agricultural inputs. Non-adopters of improved agricultural technologies are more suspicious of information asymmetry than adopters. The paper thus provides evidence that the socio-economic dynamics of information asymmetry can have an important influence on wide spread adoption of technology. Paying more attention to farm level heterogeneity and complexity would help to develop general market management plan and improve the adoption of technology by farmers. Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7235 SN - 1879-3274 VL - 63 IS - 101405 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khalili, Niloofar A1 - Arshad, Muhammad A1 - Farajzadeh, Zakariya A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Effect of drought on smallholder education expenditures in rural Iran: Implications for policy JF - Journal of Environmental Management N2 - Drought is a major global environmental challenge. It affects the livelihoods of many people, mainly in developing countries. Iran is one of the most affected and vulnerable countries in the Middle East to drought. In this paper, we present a microlevel analysis by employing the Tobit multiplicative heteroscedasticity regression to examine the effects of drought on small farm household education expenditures in rural Iran. We collected primary data from a sample of 300 smallholders in Marvdasht County in Fars Province of Iran. The results revealed a negative relationship between the farm income and education expenditures. This means that the farm households in rural Iran that were affected by the drought increased their expenditures on education for their children. The analysis of income elasticity indicated that a one percent decrease in farm income led to a 0.86% increase in education expenditures, which indicated that the education expenditures were necessary. Furthermore, we observed that in drought-affected families, girls were more likely to be pulled out of university education than were boys; however, for school education, there were no significant differences between the boys and girls. Our findings revealed the need to provide improved facilities and further finances for education expenditures, especially for female university students, and to formulate environmental management policies that include the provision of education facilities by the government of Iran in drought-affected villages. Our findings also shed light on the presence of positive externalities and the important role of education in helping rural households better cope with the negative repercussions of drought on their livelihoods. Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7250 SN - 1095-8630 IS - 260 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sam, Anu Susan A1 - Padmaja, Subash Surendran A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Kumar, Ranjit A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Climate change, drought and rural communities: Understanding people's perceptions and adaptations in rural eastern India JF - International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction N2 - Household's adaptation to drought risk consists of two steps. First step is acquiring knowledge on drought from previous drought experiences. Second step is formulation of local adaptation measures that can reduce drought risk. Lack of knowledge regarding households' perception about droughts and local adaptation measures are identified as barriers in formulating effective adaptation strategies and polices. Therefore, this paper aims to gather information on households' perceptions about drought impacts and local adaption and coping measures. We also analysed the potential determinants that affect the household's preferences for future adaptation and coping strategies. Data for the study was collected from 157 drought prone rural households of Odisha state in India. We employed both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the data. The major impacts of drought reported by rural people were the yield reduction/loss and issues of various diseases during drought. Although more than half of rural households reported adverse effects of drought, it was not their predominate concern. The most common coping measure adopted by the rural people during drought was reduction in the consumption of rice/cereals. The results indicate that rural people prefer to follow reduction in the food consumption strategy in future also. Family size, gender and education of household head and distance to nearby town influenced the preference of adaptation and coping strategies. This research can stand as one mainstay in providing insights to researches and policy makers in formulating strategies and policies for vulnerability reduction in rural India. Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7269 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 44 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mahmood, Nasir A1 - Arshad, Muhammad A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Ullah, Ayat A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Economic efficiency of rainfed wheat farmers under changing climate: evidence from Pakistan JF - Environmental Science and Pollution Research N2 - Rainfed wheat farming directly depends upon climatic indicators and is mostly at the mercy of climatic extremes. This study analyzed the relationship between the economic efficiency of rainfed wheat farmers and indicators of climate variability in Pakistan employing a two-stage methodological framework. We used farm household level crop input-output and management data and secondary data on climate. In the first stage, a stochastic production frontier (SPF) approach was used to calculate economic efficiency. Then, in the second stage, the calculated economic efficiency scores were regressed against the temperature threshold, temperature anomaly, and total rainfall, in addition to socioeconomic, institutional, and farm variables, using OLS and quantile regression models. The results showed that temperature anomaly and the number of days when temperatures exceed 30 °C have negative and significant impacts on the economic efficiency of rainfed wheat farmers. Total rainfall showed positive and significant impacts across both OLS and quantile regression models. Further, we modeled a novel and very important variable in the context of rainfed wheat production in Pakistan, that is, farmers’ participation in trainings in climate-resilient crop farming. This variable showed a positive and highly significant impact on economic efficiency of wheat farmers across all regression models. Our findings call for important policy implications, including developing up-to-date climate resilient adaptation strategies that are particularly focused on rainfed wheat farming. Establishing strong linkages between extension departments and rainfed wheat farmers could help sustain and improve the efficiency of rainfed wheat farmers and hence food and livelihood security. KW - Climate variability; Economic efficiency; Rainfed wheat; Stochastic production frontier; Quantile regression; Climate resilient crop farming Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7287 SN - 1614-7499 IS - 27 SP - 34453 EP - 34467 PB - Springer Nature ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Khalili, Niloofar A1 - Arshad, Muhammad A1 - Farajzadeh, Zakaria A1 - Kächele, Harald A1 - Müller, Klaus T1 - Does drought affect smallholder health expenditures? Evidence from Fars Province, Iran JF - Environment, Development and Sustainability N2 - Drought is one of the most frequently occurring natural disasters and results in long-term social, economic and environmental impacts that affect large areas and populations. Over the past decade, Iran has experienced a very severe drought that has affected millions of people. In this paper, we employ a standard consumption regression model to perform a microlevel analysis of the effects of drought on small-farm household health expenditures in rural Iran. We surveyed a sample of 300 small-farm households in the Marvdasht County in Fars Province, Iran. The results showed that drought significantly negatively affects smallholder health spending. Farm households that are affected by severe drought decrease their health expenditures more than less-affected households. Further, for drought-affected farmers, health expenditures are a necessity, as the income elasticity of health expenditures is as low as 0.15. Our findings indicate the importance of designing and implementing a health policy that includes the provision of healthcare services in drought-affected villages by the government, which plays an important role in coping with the health effects of drought. KW - Drought; Health expenditures; Income elasticity; Policy; Iran Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-7294 SN - 1573-2975 IS - 23 SP - 765 EP - 788 PB - Springer Nature ER -