Drought is an insidious natural hazard that results from a departure of precipitation from expected or normal and when extended over a season or longer period of time, is insufficient to meet the demands of human, plant and animal activities. Drought can have a serious impact on health, agriculture, economy, energy and the environment. Drought is a prolonged dry period in the natural climate that can occur any where in the world. It is a slow-onset disaster characterized by the lack of precipitation, resulting in a water shortage. The study was conducted to analyze agroclimatic drought in Mahasamund district of Chhattisgarh. Mahasamund district is chosen for the study on agroclimatic drought analysis and also to examine the farmer’s adaptability under AICRPAM-National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project. Two time periods have been taken into account viz., annual and SWM season. Long term rainfall data has been analyzed through Weathercock software and pattern has been drawn through Trend software. Rainfall data for Mahasamund, Bagbahara, Basna, Saraipali, Pithora blocks of Mahasamund district were collected from the Department of Agrometeorology, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Raipur.Study is as a part of CRIDA, (Hyderabad) sponsored NICRA project which has been implemented in Department of Agrometeorology, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, (C.G.) w.e.f. 2011.The result showed significant increasing trend for high rainfall events in summer and winter season particularly for Mahasamund block. Long term data analysis indicates that only Saraipali blocksufferedfrom agricultural drought while other blocks do not indicate any rabi drought. Drought proofing management and climate resilent technologies like increasingwater use efficiency through micro-irrigation, reorientation of cropping pattern, use of suitable drought tolerant crop cultivars, water harvesting structures, deep summer ploughing followed by surface tilling during rest of year should be propagated among farming community.
Author(s) Details:
J.L. Chaudhary
Department of Agricultural Meteorology, IGKV Raipur, (Chhattisgarh)- 492 012, India.
Bhumika Chandrakar
Department of Agricultural Meteorology, IGKV Raipur, (Chhattisgarh)- 492 012, India.
Rajendra Lakpale
Department of Agricultural Meteorology, IGKV Raipur, (Chhattisgarh)- 492 012, India.
Recent Global Research Developments in Assessing Agroclimatic Drought Patterns: An Analytical Approach
1. Drought Assessment in a Changing Climate:
A technical workshop co-hosted by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the USDA Climate Hubs highlighted priority actions and research questions for improving drought assessment in a changing climate [1] .
The resulting NOAA Technical Memorandum provides insights across fifteen focus areas to enhance our understanding of drought resilience in a changing climate.
2. Global Drought Monitoring Trends:
A bibliometric analysis from 1983 to 2020 revealed global patterns and trends in drought monitoring based on the Web of Science database [2] .
Researchers drew conclusions from this extensive study, shedding light on the state of drought monitoring worldwide.
3. Agricultural Drought Response in the Ganga River Basin:
A study investigated agro-climatic regions in the Ganga River basin from 2001 to 2020, quantifying meteorological drought using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) [3] .
This research contributes to our understanding of how agricultural systems respond to drought conditions.
4. Future Directions and Challenges:
Despite progress, comprehensive global studies on past and projected droughts remain elusive [4] .
Researchers continue to explore innovative approaches to assess climate change impacts on drought patterns.
References
- Assessing Drought in a Changing Climate
https://www.drought.gov/drought-in-action/drought-assessment-changing-climate-report - Wang, J., Zhang, Q., Zhang, L., Wang, Y., Yue, P., Hu, Y., & Ye, P. (2022). The global pattern and development trends and directions on the drought monitoring research from 1983 to 2020 by using bibliometric analysis. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 103(9), E2081-E2107..
- CV, A., Pachore, A., & Remesan, R. (2024). Agricultural drought response to meteorological drought over different agro-climatic zones of the Ganga River basin. Journal of Water and Climate Change, 15(3), 998-1017.
- Asadi Zarch, M.A. Past and Future Global Drought Assessment. Water Resour Manage 36, 5259–5276 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-022-03304-z