Climatic Risks and Household Vulnerability Assessment: A Case of Paddy Growers in Odisha

The state of Odisha being quite vulnerable to climatic extremes, this paper has analysed the degree of vulnerability of farming households to those climatic extremes in both irrigated as well as rainfed farming ecosystems. Using the expected poverty approach, the study has found that the degree of vulnerability of farming households is mounting with a shift in minimum threshold level of income in both the ecosystems. Again, in both the ecosystems, the marginal farmers have been found highly vulnerable, followed by small farmers. The study has come out with some policy implications and has suggested that the livelihood system of farmers needs to be diversified and their coping mechanisms should be strengthened through various government policies.