Climate changes, drought and ways of confronting to its effects in agriculture and rural sectors in south khorasan province-Iran

Climate change is a natural process and the Earth was subjected to many changes since its formation. Just as the weather changes from day to day, the climate changes over decades, centuries and millennia. But recently, the changes have become more apparent. Historical evidences suggest that the world has warmed more rapidly in the past 100 years than ever before. The ultimate eastern Iranian Province, South Khorasan, has an area of 102460 square kilometers. The Province has about 462 kilometers of common border with the Afghanistan country from the east. The province's population is 636420, according to the last statistics. Economic growth and employment opportunities in this desert and undeveloped province may not be sufficient to improve the living conditions of the poor. They need to be accompanied by measures which enhance the quality of life. In this article, author state a brief to drought management as an essential approach for regional development and maintaining employment in South Khorasan province farmers in their villages in east of Iran. A comprehensive assessment of drought environmental and socio-economic impacts provides critical information to rational decisions supporting drought mitigation policies and programs. The purpose of this study was to survey environmental and socio-economic impacts of drought in South Khorasan Province Farmers-East of Iran and prioritized them according to the viewpoint of farmers. It was of the descriptive-correlation type. Questionnaire was the main tool of this study. To determine the validity of questionnaire used of comments of panel experts and reliability of the questionnaire by using of Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 85%. The statistical populationwas the farmers whom their basic career was production of rice and according to the information of Agricultural Organization (Jihad-e-Keshavarzi) in 2010 was caught by drought. By using the proportional stratified sample method, 270 of these individuals were chosen and filled in the questionnaires. The results indicated that drought caused some environmental and socioeconomic impacts according to the viewpoint of farmers.

Keywords:

Climate changes , Drought , regional development , farmer , South Khorasan Province , Iran