Droughts are normal climatic phenomena in Northeast Thailand which lowered the water resources for drinking and irrigation as well as production losses and consequent human misery with far reaching impact on the community. The results indicated that farmers were well aware about drought issue and their perception regarding drought in the study area was linked with weather related. Drought identifiable indicators were also related to weather conditions and its impact on the crops especially rice which means agricultural drought. Most of the farmers could recall most recent drought year in comparison to old ones which in turn might end up with breakdown of well planned adaptation strategies. This research may enhance the policy maker knowledge about the farmers understanding which help them to formulate better management strategies by establishing an operational definition of drought to identify the beginning, end, and degree of severity of a drought.
Agricultural production losses, which are key indicators of the drought impact measurement, are only a part of the overall socioeconomic impact on the community whereas the community suffered other means such as lower down of local business, limited money for festival celebration, environment issues, rapid out-migration and also abandoned of the village by the few villagers, increase in alcoholics drinking. In the community meetings, public service provider also argued that increase the level of seeking assistance like water, loan reschedule, public ponds digging, health service etc. Now in the disaster mitigation policy community approach is gaining popularity and this finding can be used as a basis for developing the approach in Northeast Thailand by increasing community awareness with cross-agency approaches.