Analysis of Socio-economic and Environmental Aspects of Drought Crisis and Its Impacts on Rural Households: A Case Study of Villages of Zarindasht County, Iran

Mahboobeh NAMDAR and Khadijeh BOUZARJOMEHRY
Received: 2 October, 2015 Accepted: 26 July, 2016

Certainly, drought is considered as one of the main problems in the management of human societies and the environment. Thus, this study aimed at investigating the different effects of this phenomenon in various economic, social and environmental dimensions in villages of Zarindasht county of Iran. It was an applied study conducted in a descriptive-analytic method, and library and field studies were used to collect the required data. The sample size resulted from Cochran formula was estimated 150 households. In addition to descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon analytical tests, Chi-square, Friedman and t-test were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the drought crisis had significant economic, social and environmental effects on the studied villages, while its economic impacts were stronger and resulted in permanent withdrawal of labor from the agricultural sector, rural migration and reduction in the area under cultivation and production efficiency.