Predictive Analysis of Adaptation to Drought of Farmers in the Central Zone of Colombia

Jorge Armando Hernández-López (), Diana Ximena Puerta-Cortés and Hernán J. Andrade
Additional contact information
Jorge Armando Hernández-López: Civil Engineering Program, Engineering Faculty, Universidad de Ibagué, Carrera 22 Calle 67 B/Ambalá, Ibagué 730001, Colombia
Diana Ximena Puerta-Cortés: Psychology Program, Universidad de Ibagué, Carrera 22 Calle 67 B/Ambalá, Ibagué 730001, Colombia
Hernán J. Andrade: Research Group PROECUT, Department of Production and Plant Health, Faculty of Agronomic Engineering, Universidad del Tolima, Ibagué 730006, Colombia

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: Drought constitutes one of the natural phenomena that causes the greatest socio-economic, and environmental losses in both the short and long term worldwide. Each year, these events are related to the presence of “El Niño—Southern Oscillation” (ENSO), which occurs throughout Colombia and has serious consequences in the agricultural and food sectors, as well as in most of the country’s population. Farmers have adopted a number of strategies to mitigate the negative impact of droughts on food production. Certainly, when implementing future strategies, such strategies will be less effective if farmers’ insights on ENSO are not considered. Consequently, this study was carried out to analyze the variables that predict adaptation to droughts in the dry zones of the department of Tolima. Three questionnaires were designed: socioeconomic vulnerability (SVT), risk perception (SRPT) and drought adaptation (SAT). A non-probability sample of 538 farmers was surveyed. Socio-economic vulnerability and drought perception were found to be predictive of drought adaptation in the study sample, and older people were found to be resilient to adaptation. The results of this research provide empirical evidence to analyze and formulate public policies about the impact of droughts on the most vulnerable populations.

Keywords: vulnerability; adaptation; perception; drought; farmers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7210/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7210/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7210-:d:1461451

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().