Abstract:
Drought is one of the environmental hazards occurred due to both natural and human
activities. Drought can be identified as the socio-natural hazard and it can be transferred
into a disaster. Millions of people throughout the world are affected by droughts. North
Central Province (NCP) of Sri Lanka more vulnerable to drought because it was found
that once every 2-3 years, there is a high potential for occurring severe drought in the
NCP. Lack of rainfall within the expected period of time is the major reason for drought
in the NCP. According to past 60-year monthly rainfall data from 1955 to 2014 covering
nine meteorological stations, it was found that rainfall is not equally distributed in the
NCP. Rainfall is decreasing towards the North West parts while rainfall is increasing
towards the South East parts of the NCP. There are 1.2 millions of population in the
NCP among them 73% of the household heads practice agriculture as the major
livelihood. People in the NCP are suffering from impacts of drought frequently but they
are living with drought using both on-farm and off-farm adaptation strategies. These
adaptation strategies of the people have been changed with the passage of time. Farmers
without agricultural assets are most vulnerable to drought. Animal husbandry of the
NCP has been reduced drastically due to various reasons. Even at present, traditional
knowledge system is being practiced by the old farmers to identify and forecast drought
in the NCP. Village tank cascade system in the NCP has been playing a vast role to
mitigate impacts of drought in the past and present to minimize negative impacts of
drought. However, drought cannot be avoided but impacts can be minimized through the
proactive approach than a reactive approach where national drought policy and Drought
Mitigation Centre with responsible parties are essential components to reduce the
impacts of drought in the NCP in the long term. Further, both on-farm and off-farm
adaptation strategies should be promoted among the people particularly among farmers
who depend on rain-fed agriculture to cope with drought impacts and achieve resilience.
