Abstract
This study utilises primary data of sample farmers from flood prone areas of Mahanadi river basin of Odisha to examine their perceptions on sources of risk and management strategies. Data was collected from 311 farmers located in three regions of river Mahanadi namely upper region (Sonepur district), middle region (Boudh district) and lower region (Kendrapada district). Factor analysis has been used to reduce 26 sources of risk and 24 risk management strategies into 8 to 10 factors. Results show that drought is the main source of risk in the upper region, problem of inadequate financial support from government in the middle region, farmers and flood in the lower region. In order to cope with the risk, the major risk management strategy followed by the farmers from upper region was varietal diversification with respect to rice, mixed cropping in the middle region and crop diversification in the lower region. The results of the study provide useful insights for improving the efficacy of management of risks in agriculture in the flood prone areas of Odisha.