Analysis of Farmers' Perception of Drought in Urmia Lake Basin and its Impacts (Case Study: Miandoab County)

The social, biological, and economic impacts of droughts depend to a large extent on the readiness of farmers to respond to them, and farmers' actions in turn influence how they perceive drought. Farmers' perceptions are one of the prerequisites for facing the drought crisis, so that integration of people's perceptions of drought into the policies and planning of water resources management is essential. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to analyze farmers' perceptions of drainage basin of Urmia Lake (Miandoab County) and its effects and consequences. The study population consisted of farmers in Zarrineh Rood and Simineh Rood catchments. The purposeful sampling was done by snowball method. Required information was collected through in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions with farmers and data analysis was performed using directional content analysis and MaxiKoda software. The results showed that most farmers consider drought to be a climate phenomenon, although some also attribute it to the wrath of God, the destructive behaviors of some farmers, and the mismanagement of officials. Farmers expect anxieties about the future, aggravation of drought and drought, and an increase in the devastating effects of drought and cost savings, the use of advanced irrigation systems, drought-adapted crop cultivation, storage and optimization of consumption. Water, giving up, relying on God and getting help from religious institutions, and migrating to the city are some of the things that work to combat drought or reduce the effects of drought. The results of this study can help implement appropriate interventions to increase farmers' resilience to drought.
The effects of drought vary from region to region, and these impacts can be addressed in water, agriculture, food security, and adaptive measures. Droughts lead to a series of social and economic impacts that increase vulnerability by decreasing crop yields, unemployment, asset erosion, reduced income, inadequate nutrition and reduced risk-taking capacity. However, the social, biological, and economic impacts of future droughts on area agriculture largely depend on how farmers in the region prepare for it and how they respond to droughts. Farmers' actions, in turn, are influenced by how they interpret drought. Therefore, understanding the effects of drought requires understanding human understanding. Perception refers to a range of beliefs, judgments, and attitudes. And people's perceptions of climate change and its effects can be very different. Farmers' perceptions are one of the basic prerequisites to facing a drought crisis, so that people's perceptions of water and drought are integrated into policymaking. The results show that farmers' perceptions of the effects of drought include reduced crop yields, migration, malnutrition, declining health and education, education, desperation and destruction of rangelands and forests. The study of drought perception in the Ugalala aquifer studied experiences, memory, definitions, and expectations as explanatory factors for farmers' perceptions of drought. It affects the environment as well as human responses to environmental conditions that affect people. The study of environmental perception is based on the assumption that behaviors are influenced by subjective images of the environment, attitudes, goals, feelings, and beliefs. Experience is an important factor that shapes people's perceptions, and previous experiences of poor chapters are recalled by memories.
Drought is one of the most dangerous natural disasters and is a priority in frequency of occurrence over other natural disasters and needs more attention in decision making. Consequently, in the last few decades, developing and even industrialized countries have been attacked by drought. Iran is located in one of the driest regions of the world and water scarcity is one of the most important obstacles in the process of its agricultural development. Iran is responsible for one third of global average rainfall due to being located in the global dry belt. According to research conducted in the country, the direct effect of the damage caused by the reduction of every 1 millimeter of rainfall is 98 billion rials, so that many of the damage caused by this phenomenon is still irreparable. Remains and severe damage to the body of rural communities. This has sounded the alarm for the rural community, and given the scarcity of water resources and uncertainty about the future, there is increasing pressure on farmers to make decisions about how to manage resources and address challenges and challenges. The future of their business makes them. The drought crisis has left important rivers at risk of drying up completely. In addition to reducing rivers, the water resources of many lakes and wetlands have been either drained or drastically reduced. Lake Urmia is one of those. Changes in Lake Urmia's ecosystem in recent decades have had adverse effects on its surrounding areas. Increased rainfall, threat to wildlife, health and health problems, loss of tourist and tourism values, endangered agricultural lands and gardens, loss of rural livestock, degraded soil quality, severe drop in groundwater table, Evacuation of villages and migration to urban areas and social anomalies are among the effects that have imposed enormous economic, social and environmental costs on rural residents around Lake Urmia. Therefore, Lake Urmia faces the serious threat of shifting to irreversible conditions whose impacts are gradually expanding from biodiversity issues to socioeconomic issues and their impacts on the livelihoods and health of communities are visible. One of the major challenges identified is the significant share of the agricultural sector of Miandoab with 214,000 hectares of water resources in the Zarrinehrood and Siminehrood catchments, which in the past accounted for more than 5% of the water resources of the Urmia Lake catchment. But now it is facing the risk of drought. English Drying of two rivers of Zarinehrood and Siminehrood, which is one of the most important rivers in the Urmia Lake Basin, has severe environmental, social and economic impacts in terms of lowering the level of income from activity Agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, reduced employment opportunities, reduced levels of participation, social trust and cohesion, reduced job diversity, reduced economic diversity, land salinization, increased economic cost of production, reduced production, rural migration and increased unemployment.