Rainfall and drought characteristics for crop planning in Palamau region of Jharkhand

Daily rainfall data of 56 years (1956-2011) of Palamau district of Jharkhand have been considered to analyse the long term average and its temporal variability on weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual basis. The average annual rainfall at Palamau was 1138 mm with 34 per cent coefficient of variation indicating thereby that the rainfall was not much stable over the years. July was the highest rainfall recipient month (332 mm) followed by August (310 mm) during the monsoon period. Trend analysis on rainfall of past 56 years exhibited a decreasing pattern of 8.33 mm and 7.04 mm per year in annual and kharif season rainfall, respectively. Agricultural drought was most frequently observed in early (23-26 SMW) as well as late (37-40 SMW) stages of kharif crops. Meteorological droughts of different intensities, viz., mild, moderate and severe over the observed periods showed that station is prone to mild-moderate type of drought. Short duration, low water requiring but high value crops like maize, pulses, oilseeds and some vegetables can be opted for this region to minimize the production risk.

A Note on Rainfall Variability and Trends in Nigeria: Implications for Agricultural Production*

The climatic change crisis has led to a renewed interest in understanding the dynamic of climatic variability over time. This is because rainfall variability in response to climate change poses a severe threat to global food security and agricultural production in general. As a result of this, the study investigates the convergence of rainfall variability in Nigeria. We use historical climate data on annual rainfall collected from meteorological stations across 12 states and covering 1992–2013. This gives rise to a balanced panel data of 12 states and 20 periods, which yields 240 observations. The study used a sigma convergence hypothesis test estimated using ordinary least square, fixed-effect and feasible generalized least square models. The coefficient of variation is taken as a measure of rainfall variability in the study. The results showed a negative (declining) linear correlation between rainfall’s coefficient of variation and data year. This means that rainfall variability decreased over time. This indicates evidence of convergence of rainfall, which means states with lower average annual rainfall are catching up on states with higher average annual rainfall over time. And, from the agricultural production standpoint, this result shows that the potential threat of rainfall variability to food security is not severe. In addition, it indicates a decrease in risk and uncertainty in food crop production associated with rainfall variability. JEL Classifications: O13, O55, Q10, Q54

Landscapes of sandy areas along a rainfall gradient (90-450 mm, average annual rainfall) in the south-eastern Mediterranean area, Israel

Dryland areas are regarded as highly sensitive to climatic changes. A positive relationship between average annual rainfall, and environmental factors (water availability, species diversity, etc.), is often assumed for areas with an average annual rainfall of 100-300 mm. However, the global climatological models fail to address an important issue. The above assumption disregards the fact that a climate change in some dry-land areas is not limited to climatic factors. It is often accompanied by a pronounced variability in surface properties, such as the deposition of loess in a wet climatic phase, and of sand during a dry climatic phase. Needless to say, the spatial variability of the new surface properties may have variable effects on water resources and related environmental variables. In addition, the climatic models, based on average annual rainfall, disregard the rainfall characteristics at the rain-shower level, which greatly influence the degree to which rainwater will percolate, or will be transformed into runoff, thereby significantly affecting the spatial redistribution of water resources. In other words, a climate change in dryland areas would be expected to have differential hydrological effects in a sandy area, a rocky area, or in a loess covered area. Differential spatial hydrological effects would be also expected within each of the areas listed above. The present manuscript deals with the complex relationships between average annual rainfall, and environmental variables in sandy areas, at three research sites, along a rainfall gradient of 90-450 mm, in the south eastern Mediterranean area, Israel. Data obtained clearly show that average annual rainfall is not a good indicator of water resources, and ecosystem structure, in each of the sites; and the controlling factors vary from one site to another.

Rainfall Characteristics in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra State

Rainfall is one of the vital form of precipitation which affects not only agricultural activity but also entire ecology in any region. Hence rainfall distribution and its trends in district is important to understand water availability and to take decisions for the agricultural activities in area. This research paper is an effort to assess the spatial and temporal rainfall variability of Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State. Ahmednagar is popularly known as the largest district of Maharashtra with fourteen Talukas. The average annual rainfall of this district is 621 mm with an average of 46 rainy days. In this study the spatial and temporal rainfall distribution of this district is taken in to account. Short-term annual rainfall data are considered from 1998 to 2014. The daily rainfalls of monsoon months of all the fourteen Taluka are analyzed for the year 2015.It was found that spatial and temporal variability is high in the District.

Statistical Analysis of Rainfall Variability for Tehsils of Palghar District, Maharashtra State, India

A detailed statistical analysis of monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall for Tehsils of Palghar district were carried out using 22 years (1998-2019) daily rainfall data taken from Department of Agriculture, Maharashtra State. The mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation for monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall were computed for tehsils of Palghar districts. The month of July received maximum monthly mean rainfall for all years (1998 to 2019) in tehsils of Palghar district. The result showed that monthly mean rainfall in month of July was maximum at Jawhar (1147.1 mm) followed by Vikramgad (1071.9 mm), Talasari (1014.3 mm), Vasai (1009.9 mm), Wada (998.5 mm), Mokhada (949.6 mm), Palghar (948.7 mm) and Dahanu (841.6) with contributes 40.4 %, 39.1 %, 38.5 %, 35.4 %, 37.3 %, 37.3 %, 36.9 % and 36.3 % of the annual mean rainfall (1998 to 2019) respectively. The result showed that contribution of rainfall during Monsoon season ranges from 95.5 % to 97.0 % of the annual total rainfall for tehsils of Palghar District. The result showed that average annual rainfall (1998 to 2019) of Vasai, Jawhar, Vikramgad, Wada, Talasari, Palghar, Mokhada and Dahanu were 2855.9 mm, 2839.1 mm, 2738.9 mm, 2674.0 mm, 2633.3 mm, 2570.8 mm, 2543.6 mm and 2318.5 mm respectively.

Evaluation of Lake Simcoe watershed rainfall characterisics

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority is monitoring the phosphorous loading in Lake Simcoe and to understand the changes in phosphorous loading due to runoff, it is prudent to characterize the rainfall data of the watershed contributing to Lake Simcoe. In this project, hourly and daily rainfall data from 13 different raingage statistics surrounding Lake Simcoe was analyzed to identify event, monthly, seasonal and annual statistics and their trend and thereby to identify the driest and wettest and average annual rainfall. After initial analysis, daily rainfall data from only 4 stations with consistent data for an approximate period of 20 years were chosen for further analysis. The results showed that hydrological year 1995-1996 was the wettest and hydrologic year 1991-1992 was the driest year. Similarly summer season and the month of June were the wettest and winter season and month of February were the driest for the watershed. No significant trend was observed in the yearly and monthly rainfall data while an increasing trend was observed at 3 stations for the winter season.

Evaluation of Lake Simcoe watershed rainfall characterisics

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority is monitoring the phosphorous loading in Lake Simcoe and to understand the changes in phosphorous loading due to runoff, it is prudent to characterize the rainfall data of the watershed contributing to Lake Simcoe. In this project, hourly and daily rainfall data from 13 different raingage statistics surrounding Lake Simcoe was analyzed to identify event, monthly, seasonal and annual statistics and their trend and thereby to identify the driest and wettest and average annual rainfall. After initial analysis, daily rainfall data from only 4 stations with consistent data for an approximate period of 20 years were chosen for further analysis. The results showed that hydrological year 1995-1996 was the wettest and hydrologic year 1991-1992 was the driest year. Similarly summer season and the month of June were the wettest and winter season and month of February were the driest for the watershed. No significant trend was observed in the yearly and monthly rainfall data while an increasing trend was observed at 3 stations for the winter season.

The Evolution and Influencing Factors of Total Factor Productivity of Grain Production Environment: Evidence from Poyang Lake Basin, China

The total factor productivity (hereafter TFP) of grain production is important to achieve balanced development, while environmental factors are an important part of TEP. In order to explore the characteristics and patterns of the temporal and spatial evolution of the environmental total factor productivity (hereafter ETFP), the Malmquist-Luerberger index, and the spatial autoregressive panel (SAR panel) model were adopted to analyze the evolutionary rules and the influencing factors of ETFP. In this study, we took Poyang Lake, one of China’s main grain production areas, as a study area, and carried out empirical research based on grain production statistical data. The results show that: (1) ETFP shows a growth trend with the increase of grain production from 2001 to 2017, and a great potential for improvement exists. Moreover, from the perspective of time sequence evolution and decomposition of ETFP, which belongs to the dual-track driver of environmental technical efficiency and environmental technological progress, relevant technologies play an important role in promoting the improvement of TEFP; (2) Given that the objective conditions of gain production remain unchanged, the fact that the urbanization rate and average annual rainfall have a negative effect on ETFP, the explanatory variables such as the business scale per worker, the proportion of grain growing population, industrial agglomeration, the proportion of grain sown area and the average annual temperature all play a positive role. Among the variables, the business scale per worker and the proportion of grain growing population significantly affect ETFP at the 1% level. The average annual rainfall, industrial agglomeration and the proportion of grain sown area significantly affect the ETFP at the 5% level. The average annual temperature significantly affects the ETFP at the 10% level.

V Determination of average annual rainfall in the Aguablanca stream watershed using GIS and IDW method

In this investigation is analized the average annual rainfall of the hydrographic basin of the Aguablanca stream through the data provided by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) ranging from 1976 to 2016, because there aren´t pluviometric stations relatively close, the methodology is used IDW with the intention of interporlation results and have a calculation close to reality. it´s concluyed lhe average annual precipitation of this river is 1327.9 mm/year, a normal value for a river basin in a tropical zone, also calculating the amount of water volume, is possible to calculate the amount of evapotranspired water, parameters that vary according to temperature and type of vegetation.

Modeling of water demand management in an arid area: case of Bechar city

Bechar city is located in arid climate of the Algerian Sahara, with an average annual rainfall of about 72 mm. There are two sources to ensure the water supply of the town of Bechar; the first comes from a watershed made up of eight non-renewable boreholes, and the second comes from the Djorf Torba dam, located about 45 km to the west. The pressure on water demand in the highland region depends on many factors, namely: demographic, social, climatic and economic. This study is based on the application of a water evaluation and planning computer tool on the city of Bechar. Which allows us to analyze the supply–demand balance in the water and assess the impact of different scenarios on the study area for manage the water resource and the projected water demand for the different sectors (drinking water, industrial water and agriculture) until 2060.