Abstract:

Droughts have significant economic, environmental, and social impacts. The direct effects of drought include: reduction in total area sown and yield for different crops, decreased food diversity, and reduced water availability. Many economic impacts occur in agriculture and related sectors, because of the reliance of these sectors on surface and subsurface water. Droughts adversely affect the food production, availability, accessibility and quality which results in hunger and malnutrition. Droughts are major precipitants of hunger and famine, and contribute to complex humanitarian emergencies. Children, pregnant women, the elderly and people from low socioeconomic groups are more vulnerable to the impacts of drought. Higher food prices together with reduced income during drought severely impact the purchasing power and food diversity among the poor, leading to consumption of subsistence diets and thereby multiple micronutrient malnutrition. Existing micronutrient deficiencies particularly of vitamin A, iron, folic acid, zinc and vitamin C may become even worse during the droughts. Decreased food diversity and the resulting multiple-micronutrient deficiencies are contributing to a high prevalence of underweight and stunting among children under five years of age. Drought-mitigating responses can be divided into immediate, medium-term and long-term measures. Immediate measures include emergency food relief, and supplementary feeding. Medium-term measures include more preventive measures and the longer term measures are aimed to address more complex socio-economic issues. Drought-preparedness includes drought planning, plan implementation, proactive mitigation measures, and public education.