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 - 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 -