Account of 102 Year Extreme Rainfall and Air Temperature Related to Jute Production in West Bengal

Abstract

District level rainfall and temperature data of 102 year (1901-2002) were analyzed for assessment of trend and extreme events related to jute production in West Bengal. The deviation from optimum rainwater and air temperature (April-May: rainwater- 229 mm, Tmax-37°C, Tmin-24°C & June July: rainwater- 304 mm, Tmax -37°C, Tmin-24°C) were computed and observed that the long-term average (102-year) actual rainwater during April-May was lower in all the districts except in Darjeeling, Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri. Maximum air temperature was higher in Bankura, Birbhum, and Murshidabad but lower in rest of the jute growing districts of West Bengal. The minimum air temperature was lower than optimum in Cooch Behar, Dakshin Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Hooghly, Jalpaiguri, Malda, South 24-Parganas, and Uttar Dinajpur and it was higher in the rest. However, in June-July, actual rainwater was higher than the optimum (304 mm) for all the districts that means there was no shortage of rain water for jute production during that period but the stagnation of water in jute field was observed as detrimental to fibre quality. During this period (June-July) both the maximum and minimum air temperatures were within the optimum range and congenial to jute growth in all the jute growing districts except in Darjeeling and South 24-Parganas where only minimum air temperature was found lower than the optimum which reduced the jute growth.