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An index to assess agricultural drought in India

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Summary

Crop drought or moisture stress is a function of the difference between actual evapotranspiration and evapotranspiration requirements of the crop under given atmospheric conditions.

In the present work the climatic water balance approach is utilized to develop a crop moisture index for the kharif crop season over India.

The difference between actual and climatologically derived evapotranspiration have been accumulated for different consecutive weeks of the crop season and made comparable in time and space through suitable weights. The lowest weighted deficit values have then been used for successive weeks to evolve the Crop Moisture Index. This index enables detection of degree of moisture stress experienced by the crop and can be used in drought monitoring.

Zusammenfassung

Dürre oder Feuchtestreß ist eine Funktion der Differenz zwischen tatsächlicher Verdunstung und dem Verdunstungsbedarf für bestimmte Kulturpflanzen unter gegebenen atmosphärischen Bedingungen. In vorliegender Studie wird die klimatische Wasserbilanz verwendet, um einen Feuchtigkeitsindex für die Kharif-Anbauzeit in Indien zu erstellen.

Die Differenz zwischen aktueller und klimatologisch errechneter Verdunstung wurde für einige aufeinanderfolgende Wochen der Erntezeit aufsummiert und durch geeignete Gewichtungen in Zeit und Raum vergleichbar gemacht. Die am wenigsten veränderten Defizitwerte wurden dann für aufeinanderfolgende Wochen zur Errechnung eines Feuchtigkeitsindex herangezogen. Dieser Index ermöglicht die Quantifizierung des für die Pflanzen relevanten Feuchtestresses und kann für die Aufzeichnung von Dürren verwendet werden.

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Chowdhury, A., Gore, P.G. An index to assess agricultural drought in India. Theor Appl Climatol 40, 103–109 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00866173

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00866173

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