Do risk management strategies prevent economic and non-economic loss and damages? Empirical evidence from drought affected households in western India

Various transformative and curative measures have been undertaken as part of the disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation program to mitigate risks from extreme events in India. Studies have so far explored the causal relationship between these options and economic loss and damage; however, there is a gap in the context of non-economic loss and damage in general, and drought in particular. This study, therefore, aims to investigate the role of risk management options in preventing economic and non-economic risks from droughts in western India. Irrigation and crop insurance are found to be the most frequently used adaptive measures among the sample households. Overall, this study reveals that irrigation mitigates damage risks, whereas crop insurance fails to smoothen consumption, particularly the non-economic risks, which is in contrast to expectation. From the policy perspective, the study recommends expansion of irrigated command area with a large-scale adoption of resource efficient technologies, and revisiting the existing insurance mechanism for effective risk management and large-scale adoption.