Resilience to impacts of dust crisis among Ahwaz county date palm orchardists:

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Authors

1 Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University, Yasouj

2 Department of Rural Development Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University, Yasouj

Abstract

Dust storms as extreme weather events are recurrent feature of the climate that has contributed to severe damage to farmers’ population. Date palm sector in Khuzestan province is one of the dust- prone areas that had been affected seriously during recent dust storms. This study aims at investigating factors contributing to date palm orchardists’ resilience to cope with dust stress. Population for this study was 157 date palm orchardists resided in Ahwaz county. This study is based on primary sources of data collected from 100 orchardists following a structured questionnaire survey design. Questionnaire’s validity was confirmed by a panel of experts. The reliability of different scales was measured by alpha Cronbach’s coefficient which was ranged between 0.59-0.84. Results revealed that washing dates, using protecting nets, spraying toxins, cultivating other crops between palm trees and searching for other sources of income were known as resilience behaviors among orchardists. Path analysis results showed that date palm growers’ perception of resilience (β=0.43) and social motives (β=0.21) contributed positively and significantly to date orchardists’ resilience behavior. There was also significant positive indirect impact between social dialogue and resilience of date orchardists to dusty conditions.

Keywords

References

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Environmental Sciences
Volume 14, Issue 1
April 2016
Pages 105-116

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