Drought is a major constraint affecting rice production especially in rainfed areas of Asia.Despite its importance in rice growing areas, the magnitude of economic losses arising from drought, its impact on farm households and farmers' drought coping mechanisms are poorly understood. This paper provides insights into these aspects of drought based on a cross-country comparative analysis of rainfed rice growing areas in China, India and Thailand.The economic cost of drought is found to be substantially higher in eastern India than in the other two countries. Higher probability and greater spatial covariance of drought and less diversified farming systems with rice accounting for a large r share of household income are likely to be the main reasons for this higher cost of drought in eastern India. Farmers deploy various coping mechanisms but such mechanisms are largely unable to prevent a reduction in income and consumption, especially in eastern India. As a result, welfare consequences on poor farmers are substantial with a large number of people falling back into poverty during drought years. The overall implications for technology design and for policy improvements for drought mitigation and drought relief are discussed in the light of the empirical findings of the study.

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Since time immemorial, Jharkhand region of Bihar happens to be the homeland of large number of people primarily tribals. Although the history of the area is obscure, it seems that various tribal groups came in the area, cleared the forest and settled in the valleys. They developed their own set of traditions and customs determining ownership, use and succession of land and common property resources. However, after living in relative isolation, the area has witnessed outside impositions since Mughal period. Each phase of history has brought new challenges and threats over the resources of these people, both individual and common property resources. The tribals in Jharkhand have a long history, both violent and non-violent protests in the area. The history of formal agrarian legislation bagan in the British period and each protest led to a new set of legislation in the area. The process continues till date. The present paper makes a modest attempt to discuss briefly the Agrarian legislation in the Jharkhand region of Bihar in a historical perspective namely in pre-British, British and post-Independence period.

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Tribals in general have a traditional system of governance which continue still date in one form or the other. The present paper discusses the state of traditional system of governance amongst the major tribal groups in the Jharkhand Region of Bihar. The paper gives an outline of the functioning of the traditional system of governance in the area. It discusses effectiveness of system, participation of people including women, the opinions of tribals, non-tribals and the leaders of this system regarding effectiveness and the functioning of the system.