Farmer's Perception of Drought Consequences by Phenomenological Approach (Case study: South Khorasan Province)

The first step to cope with the drought and its consequences is understanding of drought and its effects in various dimensions. Understanding of effective strategies and solutions can be used. Present work was conducted with the aim of studying Farmer's perception of drought consequences in South Khorasan Province. The statistical population of research was the south Khorasan villagers as third dry province in the country. Informed people were selected by snowball method and the data was collected through in depth interviews and direct observation. Data analysis was performed based on Colaizzi method. Based on this method, Farmer's questioned concepts about consequences of drought were classified in three distinct sections, including economic consequences, environmental consequences and socio- psychological consequences. Then each section and its mentioned concepts were interpreted and appropriate recommendations and suggestions were presented and finally the results of research were compared with figures published by governmental organizations and agencies as well.