HYDROLOGICAL ANALYSIS FOR VIABLE CROPPING PATTERN THROUGH ORGANIZED FARMING

Abstract

Dry spells & droughts are the natural climatic features. It is widely believed that dry spells and droughts occur due to variability of rainfall, delay in onset of monsoon, long dry spells and early withdrawal of monsoon, which adversely affect vegetation, human beings and livestock. Nevertheless occurrence of long dry spells during rainy season is more adverse for agriculture. The dry spells when exceed certain limiting duration become critical to normal crop growth. In Ambala region, it is observed that there is an indiscriminate pumping of groundwater to meet the crop water demand during prolonged dry spells. Therefore, groundwater resources of Ambala .region often face over exploitation. While surface water resources are limited, exploitation of groundwater resources may be the only immediate alternative to meet the crop water demand. To prevent excess exploitation of water resources while at the same time to meet ever increasing varietals food demands of population calls for a systematic agricultural planning. It was planned to study the hydrological and agricultural aspects of critical dry spells based on the analysis of rainfall, evaporation, groundwater table, soil characteristics, crop water requirements and its critical stages. The onset, termination, and distribution of rainfall during monsoon season play significant role in cultivation of different crops and their yields. Onset & termination of monsoon and occurrence of Critical Dry Spells in the region have been analyzed for ten locations. The study further assessed the supplemental irrigation requirements of different crops grown in the kharif cropping season based on the duration of critical dry spells faced by the area & effective rainfall during the cropping period.