Resilient rainfed technologies for drought mitigation and sustainable food security

Even though drought is one of the most common features affecting rainfed agriculture, it is necessary to consider it as an extreme climatological event that requires different types of alleviating strategies for overcoming it. The risk involved in successful cultivation of crops depends on the nature of drought (chronic and contingent), its probable duration, and frequency of occurrence within the season. These aberrations are expected to further increase in future. A significant fall in food production is often noticed with increase in intensity or extension in duration of drought prevalence. Drought affects not only the food production at farm level but also the national economy and overall food security. Location-specific rainfed technologies are available to cope with different drought situations. Much of the research done in rainfed agriculture in India relates to conservation of soil & rainwater and to drought proofing. The key technologies for drought mitigation are in situ moisture conservation, rainwater harvesting and recycling, resilient crops and cropping systems including contingency crop plans, foliar sprays, and integrated farming systems. However, drought preparedness and real time implementation of contingency measures at field level needs well structured institutional support for farmers with strong government policy and convergence among various institutions. Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, needs to facilitate the convergence process of various government schemes such as MGNREGA, RKVY, Mega Seed Project, NFSM, NHM, IWMP, Soil health schemes etc. for drought preparedness. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), one among the missions under the Prime Minister National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) may take a lead role in implementation of contingency, by inclusion of this activity in State Action Plans (SAP) with a dedicated Nodal Institution /officers and budget provision.

Analysis of precipitation concentration degree changes and its spatial evolution in the western plain of Jilin Province

In order to study temporal and spatial evolution of the precipitation concentration degree and period in Western Plains of Jilin during the crop growing season and then adjust irrigation strategy, this paper studied the spatial and temporal characteristics of precipitation. Results are as follows: In the growing season from nearly 35 years, the decrease of precipitation during the growing season contributed more to the reduction of interannual precipitation. The maximum precipitation and precipitation duration showed a slight downward trend whereas the minimum precipitation was reversed. Precipitation duration gradually increased from west to east. In the past 35 years, the precipitation concentration degree (PCD) decreased by linear function of “y = -0.0018x + 0.4655”, indicating that the precipitation exhibited a trend of balanced distribution. The PCD decreased from the northwest to the southeast. From the precipitation concentration period (PCP), it changed from early July to late July. In summary, it was important to strengthen the staged drought-preparedness contingency plans in the region.

Integrated Proactive Drought Management in Hydrosystems and 2 Cities: Building a Nine-Step Participatory Planning Methodology

Drought is widely known as a complex natural hazard, not just by its climatological features but also by human experiences and socio-economical impacts. Drought preparedness is the only way a society can mitigate effects and better cope with droughts. Here we present a methodological approach to guide the implementation of proactive drought plans, specially designed for hydrossystems and cities scales. We highlight strategies to engage local stakeholders in constructing such plans and build a participatory methodology. The preparedness drought plan methodology was developed and applied to two hydrosystems and two cities located in the Piranhas-Açu river basin, a drought-prone area of Brazilian Semi-arid. Our findings suggest that participatory socio-technical methodologies, built only from the system operators' tacit knowledge, can achieve good results when data and resources are limited. Still, results can be enhanced by hydrologic and hydraulic modeling to assess vulnerability, scenarios and strategies. We illustrate and analyze the process by storytelling to develop a meaningful and convincing narrative that speaks to theory and practice, and we provide recommendations to facilitate this approach.

Integrating Ecological Impacts: Perspectives on Drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States

Drought is a complex challenge experienced in specific locations through diverse impacts, including ecological impacts. Different professionals involved in drought preparedness and response approach the problem from different points of view, which means they may or may not recognize ecological impacts. This study examines the extent to which interviewees perceive ecological drought in the Upper Missouri Headwaters basin in southwestern Montana. Through semistructured interviews, this research investigates individuals’ perceptions of drought by analyzing how they define drought, how they describe their roles related to drought, and the extent to which they emphasize ecological impacts of drought. Results suggest that while most interviewees have an integrated understanding of drought, they tend to emphasize either ecological or nonecological impacts of drought. This focus was termed their drought orientation. Next, the analysis considers how participants understand exposure to drought. Results indicate that participants view drought as a complex problem driven by both human and natural factors. Last, the paper explores understandings of the available solution space by examining interviewees’ views on adaptive capacity, particularly factors that facilitate or hinder the ability of the Upper Missouri Headwaters region to cope with drought. Participants emphasized that adaptive capacity is both helped and hindered by institutional, cultural, and economic factors, as well as by available information and past resource management practices. Understanding how interviewees perceive the challenges of drought can shape drought preparedness and response, allowing those designing programs to better align their efforts to the perceptions of their target audience.

A multiple streams analysis of drought policies in Ceará state, Brazil

<p>Interactions between society and water are complex, socio-hydrological systems are influenced by policies, which rarely are a simple linear response with the aim of providing the most efficient solution. In drought contexts, a new layer of complexity is added, considering the different uncertainties involved, related to the rainfall season, or the duration of multi-year drought events. We utilized the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) theory to answer the following question: how do multi-year droughts function as focusing events? Focusing events may trigger greater attention to problems and solutions because they increase the likelihood that more organized interests, including some that are influential and powerful, could advocate policy change. MSA seeks to explain how policy changes. It assumes the policy change happens when three separate streams interact: (1) the problem stream, involving the emergence or recognition of a problem by society; (2) the policy stream, containing policy ideas and alternatives generated by specialists, researchers, politicians, and social actors; and (3) the politics stream, referring to the political, administrative, and legislative context favorable or unfavorable to developing certain actions to overcome the problem. The justification to apply the MSA lenses in this is study is to understand the influences of multi-year drought events as a focusing event that triggered the process of policy change considering the subnational context of Ceará state in Brazil. In this study, the following methodological procedures were used: (a) historical overview of drought occurrence and the policy responses in Ceará; (b) data processing of hydrologic records (rainfall). We found three main different policy approaches to drought impacts: reactive, proactive, and drought preparedness policies. We found in some cases that multi-year droughts served as focusing events that opened windows of opportunities, triggering policy response changes, such as, collaboration, new problem framing, and increased political attention. Our findings have implications for the socio-hydrology field, as there is still significant scope for increasing the understanding of the influences of public policies in the context of coupled-humans systems, especially in the context of drought. </p>

Evaluation of SEAS5 Precipitation Forecasts in the Central American Dry Corridor

<p>Seasonal forecasts provide an opportunity to enhance drought preparedness in the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC). Evaluation of seasonal precipitation predictions within the CADC is important because rainfall affects many local livelihoods, and rainfall predictability in this region may be low due to its complex climate and terrain. In this presentation, SEAS5, a leading seasonal forecasting system produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, is evaluated for the accuracy of its precipitation predictions across the CADC relative to the GPCC gridded precipitation dataset derived from rain-gauge data. A few studies have assessed its predecessor (System 4) in Central America but none have assessed SEAS5 in the CADC. SEAS5 predictions of rainfall mean, variability, and extremes are evaluated using one- to seven- month lead-times over 1981-2016 and for known historical droughts. Results show that SEAS5 precipitation forecasts often perform best during July and August, two important months for crop growth because they occur during the mid-summer dry period, which separates the wet season into distinct phases. Elevation seems to have an influence, although alone it does not explain variations in forecast skill across the region. SEAS5 overpredicts rainfall in greater quantities at high elevation. This analysis showcases promising forecast skill of relevance to agricultural forecasting and could be expanded on in future work by evaluating skill of other drought indicators.</p>

Information Needs of Women Subsistence Farmers in a Village in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

This article reports on findings of a study that was conducted to establish the information needs of women subsistence or smallholder farmers and the various information sources they consulted to resolve their information needs. The study was qualitative, and a grounded theory design was used. Focus group interviews and observation were used to collect data from 14 women crop farmers and three women livestock keepers. The farmer-to-farmer extension (FFE) model was adopted to understand the information-seeking behaviours of women farmers and how they can be improved, if need be. The findings revealed that while the women crop farmers needed help with seeds, soil treatment and the protection of crops from pests and stray animals, they needed more information on drought preparedness and management, and, on how to transform from subsistence to commercial farming. Women livestock keepers needed information on livestock feeds, the treatment of various ailments, and disaster preparedness and management. In addition, they needed the reintegration of the extension officer. It also transpired that local libraries were not responding to the information needs of farmers. The main source of information was oral communication. The use of radio, television, cell phones and extension officers was limited. This study echoes other studies which propose it is important that libraries, non-government organisations (NGOs) and extension officers respond to the information needs of smallholder farmers, especially women.

Identification of Meteorological Drought Characteristics and Drought Year Based on Rainfall Departure Analysis

Dholpur district is located in the semi-arid regions of Rajasthan. The region is affected due to unreliable rainfall pattern, which resulted in the development of a drought-like situation. The mean annual rainfall in the district is 596.76 mm. The present study has been conducted to identify drought-prone station, drought year and drought characteristics. Departure analysis of seasonal and annual rainfall helps to determine drought year and drought characteristics. The study shows that the region in under widespread drought condition in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 2002, 2006, and 2007. The drought severity in the region was classified into four categories, namely extreme, severe, moderate and mild. Maximum extreme drought events occur in Baseri and Dholpur station. Urmilsagar station faced severe drought events 4 times followed by Rajakhera station with three times. Occurrences of moderate and mild drought events are frequent in the region. All the stations are drought-prone based on probability analysis of annual rainfall. Relative departure index (RDI) has been used to decide the relative drought proneness of the various station and based on which Dholpur station (RDI= 1.04) followed by Baseri station (RDI=1.0) are relatively higher drought-prone. The region faces natural water scarcity and droughts. Therefore effort is needed for drought preparedness, mitigation and management measures.