Drought risk and drought risk management strategies among Austrian crop farmers

Abstract

So far, droughts have not been a main concern for high-income countries, including Austria. However, the effects of climate change will likely cause droughts to occur more frequently and with greater severity also in Austria particularly (Hochrainer-Stigler et al. 2018). Particularly Austrian farmers have frequently been affected by drought over the past decade, and scientific research predicts a continuation of this trend. Targeted efforts at relevant policymaking have been increasing in parallel in different sectors and domains, however, no concerted drought risk management strategies – neither for the agricultural sector nor at a cross sectoral level – are available. This working paper presents a survey that we designed and conducted to investigate Austrian cropping farmers’ perceptions of and experiences with drought risk and its management. The aim was to inform policy making at different levels to design both targeted and integrated drought risk management strategies. The working paper includes a description of the data collection process and the survey design, as well as a detailed characterization of the sample and the data collected. This document thus highlights the main findings of the survey and serves as a background document for further, more detailed analysis. The work presented is part of the ACRP-funded FARM project. For more information on the project, please consult www.iiasa.ac.at/farm. For more information on the conceptual context as well as Austrian governance landscape for drought see Hanger-Kopp and Palka 2020