Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihood of Farmers Under Drought Situation — A Socio-economic Study

The paper has analysed the effect of drought on agricultural activities and livelihood pattern of farmers in five districts of Hyderabad Karnataka region. The study conducted during 2009–10 on 150 farmers has utilized both primary and secondary data. Due to incidence of drought a decline was observed in yield, total cost net returns of different crops. The highest decline in yield was in sorghum (86.4%), followed by redgram (69.7%), paddy (57.9%), bengalgarm (54.9%) and groundnut (54.7%). A decrease in the inventory of draught animals, crossbred cows and milch animals was also observed on incidence of draught. The strategies adopted to cope-up with drought condition included conservation or purchase of fodder, retention of foodgrains, borrowings from money lenders, migration, postponement of marriages, etc. Higher adoption of rural non-farm activities was also observed as was evident from rise in income by 27.3 per cent from this sector.