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Title: | Guidelines on Drought Coping Plans for Rainfed Production Systems |
Other Titles: | Guidelines on Drought Coping Plans for Rainfed Production Systems |
Authors: | ICAR_CRIDA |
ICAR Data Use Licennce: | http://krishi.icar.gov.in/PDF/ICAR_Data_Use_Licence.pdf |
Author's Affiliated institute: | ICAR_CRIDA |
Published/ Complete Date: | 2003-05 |
Project Code: | Not Available |
Keywords: | Guidelines, Drought Coping Plans, Rainfed Production Systems |
Publisher: | ICAR_CRIDA |
Citation: | Not Available |
Series/Report no.: | Not Available; |
Abstract/Description: | Guidelines on Drought Coping Plans for Rainfed Production Systems 1. Rainfed Agriculture Scenario In the absence of adequacy of water resources for irrigation, rainfed farming is practiced in nearly two third of the arable land (96 mha) in India. The gross cropped area of the country is 182 mha. Out of an estimated 142 mha net cultivated area, about 67% is rainfed. In this, 76 mha is under irrigation. The National Commission on Agriculture in 1976 predicted that even when the full irrigation potential is tapped by 2013 AD, over 50% of the arable land would continue to remain rainfed in the foreseeable future. So far much of the agricultural growth achieved in past decades occurred in irrigated areas. The potential for additional production gains in these areas may lessen with time from inherent problems. It is in the rainfed belt where cultivation of coarse cereals (91%), pulses (91%), oilseeds (80%) and cotton (65%) predominates. About 44% of the total production is contributed by rainfed region. Rainfed agriculture supports 40% of country’s population. The rainfed areas are increasingly being warranted to help meet the raising demand for food, pulses, oilseeds, feed, fuel, fruits, vegetables etc. Thus, the country’s economy depends on a sustained increase in the productivity from drylands. Rainfed regions in India encompass a wide range of soil and rainfall conditions. 1.1 Soil Soils of these regions belong to alluvium (Entisols and Inceptisols), red soils (Alfisols, Oxisols and Ultisols), black soils (Vertic Inceptisols and Vertisols), submontane soils (Entisols, Inceptisols and Mollisols), and sierozemic soils (Aridisols). Among these, red (132 mha) and black (72 mha) soils are largest in extent in the country. Red soils exhibit large variation in pore size distribution, and consequently in water retention, transmission and release characteristics. Black soils possess high water retentivity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, which make them suitable for rainfed crops in both the seasons; however, soils with high clay remain prone to oxygen stress because of poor internal drainability through micro-pores in kharif. Thus, there exists a wide range of water retentivity, its conductivity and availability to the growing plants. The length of water availability or growing period and growth depends on soil related constraints inherently. 2 All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA) 1.2 Climate It is estimated that the total precipitation in the country is 400 mha-m (million-hectare meters) annually. Of this, around 150 mha-m enters the soil, about 180 mha-m constitutes the runoff, and about 70 mha-m is lost through evaporation. India has, by now, been able to utilize less than 20 mha-m of the 180 mha-m of runoff for all major and minor irrigation projects, thus leaving about 160 mha-m of precipitation that flows freely through rivers into the sea. Rainfall varies with a large variation in its temporal and spatial distribution. The rainfed area in the country can broadly be classified into three climatic regions – arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid. Among many factors contributing to suboptimal and unsustainable yield levels, availability of excessive water in spells during kharif (rainy) season, and water stress of varying degree and duration during rabi (post rainy) season figure prominently. The crop yields, thus, largely or entirely depends on the growing season rainfall plus water stored in the soil profile. Due to this rainfed regions are characterized by relatively low and unstable crop yields. Risk is high because rain is undependable in both timing and amount making the region prone to periodic short to long-term droughts. Dryland crop production is a function of both spatial and temporal availability of soil moisture within the field during the crop growth period. The uncertain drought is a major contributing factor to low productivity, which is estimated at 0.2, 0.6 and 1.0 t/ha against a potential of 1.0, 1.9 and 3.0 t/ha under arid, semi-arid and sub-humid regions, respectively. Drought recurrence is a location specific interaction between soil capacity to retain moisture and precipitation in a region. Agriculture in rainfed areas, thus, continues to be a gamble because farmers in rainfed region face many uncertainties. Rainfall and rainfed crop based production systems of the country are shown in Fig.1. 2. Indigenous Risk Management The impacts of drought on society and the environment often linger for years after the drought has passed. Older farmers are more likely than younger farmers to say drought as a harsh and long period. More of the younger farmers tend to feel drought as shorter and less severe and expect to see more of milder droughts. Farmers in rainfed agricultural areas have developed their own strategies for reducing their exposure to crop production risk, and for coping with losses when they occur. Traditional risk management strategies have proven effective in managing drought risk, and have enabled rainfed agricultural societies to survive their risky environments for many millennia. Cultural Practices play an important risk-reducing role; they include planting different crops with relatively low covariate yield (either in an mixed/intercrop or on separate fields); diversifying spatially by operating multiple plots with different environmental characteristics; and staggering planting dates in the face of variable rainfall patterns. But despite their advantages, traditional drought management strategies also have associated opportunity costs, and they are ineffective for the poor. By diversifying their crops to reduce risk, farmers are less able to exploit their most profitable alternatives. In effect, farmers sacrifice potentially higher income on varieties that are more drought tolerant but less productive, and are often less willing to use or invest in modern inputs, improved seeds and fertilizers, that could increase average profitability but lead to loss of capital investment if rainfall is unfavorable. These opportunity costs can especially be costly to the poor because their average incomes are already so low to begin with. |
Description: | Not Available |
ISSN: | Not Available |
Type(s) of content: | Technical Report |
Sponsors: | Not Available |
Language: | English |
Name of Journal: | Not Available |
Volume No.: | Not Available |
Page Number: | Not Available |
Name of the Division/Regional Station: | Not Available |
Source, DOI or any other URL: | Not Available |
URI: | http://krishi.icar.gov.in/jspui/handle/123456789/32997 |
Appears in Collections: | NRM-CRIDA-Publication |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Guidelines.pdf | 370.02 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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