A Study on Technological Mitigation Strategies of Farmers to Overcome Drought Situations in Namakkal District A Study on Technological Mitigation Strategies of Farmers to Overcome Drought Situations in Namakkal District

Abstract

A drought is an extended period where water availability falls below the statistical requirements for a region. Monsoon failure is experienced in many parts of the country almost every year. The study was conducted in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu state, with the objective to identify and document the technological mitigation strategies that are currently adopted by farmers in the study area to overcome the adverse effects of drought. Simple random sampling method was used in the selection of 100 farmers; each 50 belongs to annual and seasonal crops, respectively. Considering various technological mitigation practices, the awareness, acceptance, and adoption level of farmers were collected and the data were analyzed using percentage analysis. The findings revealed that more than 75.00% of the respondents were aware of most of the technological mitigation strategies. When it comes to the acceptance level of technological mitigation strategies, a gap between awareness and acceptance was found. Nearly 50.00–60.00% of respondents who were aware of the technologies such as drip/sprinkler method of irrigation, mulching, selection of drought-tolerant varieties, and application of antitranspirant chemicals sprays but not adopted them. The technological mitigation strategies promoted by the extension agents were adopted by half of the realized farmers. As most of them are taking benefits of these programs.