Analysis of farmers' subjective well-being during drought: A case of Koohdasht County

Frequent occurrence of droughts in arid and semi-arid rural areas not only cause economic and social problems for farmer families but also affect their subjective well-being. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the farmers' subjective well-being during the drought. To do this Koohdasht’s farmers (N=23,600) were considered as the statistical population of which a sample including 379 farmers were selected using the cluster sampling technique. Data was collected using a questionnaire which its face validity was confirmed by a group of experts. To ensure of the reliability of the research instrument, a pilot study was carried out and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients were approved in an acceptable range. The findings revealed that while most households rely heavily on agriculture for their livelihoods, the impacts of drought on the basic resources of production have affected the subjective well-being of farmers. Also, the positive emotions and life satisfaction had the highest rank in measuring the subjective well-being of farmers. On the other hand, there was a significant difference between the subjective well-being of smallholder and non-smallholder, rainfed and irrigated, elderly and non-elderly, poor and non-poor farmers. Non-smallholders, irrigated, elderly, and wealthy farmers had higher subjective well-being. Based on the findings, recommendations were offered to increase the subjective well-being of farmers in the context of drought.