Floods, droughts, storms, earthquakes, fi res and severe weather conditions have significant, widespread and long-lasting impacts on the agricultural sector. The study was conducted in flood prone areas of Dhemaji district of Assam to assess the farmers’ perception on disaster risk mitigation practices and study selected personal, socio-economic, psychological and communication attributes of farmer respondents as well as to fi nd out the relationship between perception of farmers on disaster risk mitigation practices with the selected personal, socio-economic, psychological and communication attributes of the respondents. A multi-stage, purposive cum random sampling design was used in the study for selecting 100 sample respondents. The study revealed that most of the respondents were young to middle aged, marginal farmers and had medium level of formal education. Majority of them belonged to the low and medium level of annual income categories and had medium level of economic motivation, scientific orientation, extension contact and mass media exposure. The perception Index indicates that high majority of the farmers showed favorable perception on disaster risk mitigation practices. Correlation analysis of the independent variables of the study with perception of farmers on disaster risk mitigation practices revealed that six independent variables, viz., size of land holding, extension contact, mass media exposure, age, education and risk bearing ability were positively and significantly correlated with mitigation practices. Appropriate agricultural technology interventions suited for hazards affected areas may be planned keeping in mind farmers’ favourable perception on technologies and their socio-economic attributes.

Keyword: Farmers’ Perception; Disaster Risk Mitigation; Perception Index; Flood Prone.