This paper examines farmers’ cognitive perceptions of risk and the behavioral intentions to implement specific drought risk reduction measures using the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) model. We follow an innovative route by extending a PMT model with a drought experience variable, which, we hypothesize, will influence risk perceptions and the take-up of adaptation measures. In order to do so, we investigated detailed historical drought patterns by looking at the spatial and temporal aspects of drought conditions during crop growing season at the village level.

Vulnerability assessment using composite indices provides critical information for the policymakers on why certain regions are impacted more than the others. Several researchers have assessed the vulnerability to hazard in diverse spatial and environmental settings, however, not many studies have assessed the vulnerability to flood hazards in Bihar, where flooding is a perennial event.

Employing a multilevel model, this paper demonstrates the importance of contextual effects, over and above the compositional effects, in shaping the geographical pattern of agricultural diversification towards high value crops. The results reveal that, besides household-level differences, the contextual effects of higher geographical levels, especially states and villages, explain significant variation in land-use under high value crops, but these do not apply to all types of crops and farm classes in a similar manner.