Real time contingency measures for crop management under rainfed conditions in Shiwalik foothills( Punjabi Version)

Abstract

In the North-Eastern part of the Punjab about 0.393 mha area (7.8 % of state area) in the Shivalik foot hills known as Kandi stretches from Dhar Kalan block of Pathankot district to Dera Bassi block of SAS Nagar, covering parts of Pathankot, Hoshiarpur, Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar, Roop Nagar and SAS Nagar districts.The per capita availability of food grains in the Kandi belt is low which is 1871 g/day as compared to 3188 g/day in the rest of Punjab. Despite having surplus food grain production in Punjab, Kandi belt is still facing the problem of food security. The crop production in Kandi is dependent on the rainfall which varies from 845 mm to 1500 mm annually and 80% of rainfall occurs in monsoon from June to September. Most of the rain water is lost through the seasonal streams called 'choes' resulting in acute moisture stress and drought like situation in crops during dry spells. Moreover, due to climate change the rainfall pattern has also shown a declining trend in Kandi belt particularly in kharif season. Further, the weather aberrations like delayed onset of monsoon, mid-season dry spells and early withdrawal of monsoon have intensified. The dry spells mostly occur during the critical stages of the crop growth which have an adverse impact on crops resulting in low productivity.