Karnataka CM’s Request for Amendments to Drought Manual

Karnataka CM’s Request for Amendments to Drought Manual

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical geography

Introduction

• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urges Centre to amend the Manual for Drought Management 2016 (updated in 2020) for drought declaration by States.
• Emphasizes the need for different parameters to declare drought in 14 agro-climatic zones in Karnataka due to erratic weather conditions influenced by climate change.

Current Rainfall Situation

• Karnataka’s rainfall deficit: 234 mm received against the normal 336 mm in the current southwest monsoon season.
• Delayed monsoon arrival and 56% deficiency in June.
• Erratic rainfall distribution and intensity throughout the season.

Impact on Agriculture

• Farmers facing critical issues due to failure in meeting existing parameters for declaring drought.
• Lack of support like input subsidy for sowing failure or mid-season crop failure due to weak rains.

Proposed Revisions

• Need to revise existing drought declaration parameters to account for diverse agro-climatic conditions in Karnataka’s 14 zones.
• Current one-size-fits-all approach insufficient for capturing regional variations.
• Importance of developing region-specific criteria based on local ecological factors, water availability, and agricultural practices.

Reevaluating Meteorological Drought

• Meteorological, agricultural, and hydrological drought integration in the current manual.
• Need to factor in erratic monsoon distribution.
• Impact of early monsoon rainfall deficiency on agriculture even if it recovers later.
• Highlighting the discrepancy between IMD’s 10% criterion for a nationwide drought year and Karnataka’s 60% rainfall deviation criterion.

Redefined Dry Spells

• Suggestion to redefine dry spells by considering factors like soil type, crop type, temperature, and vegetative state.
• Call for reduction in the time duration needed to declare dry spells.
• Mention of obstacle posed by the condition on sowing completion for declaring early drought.

Review of Impact Indicators

• Importance of reviewing impact indicators such as groundwater drought index, remote sensing indicators, and soil moisture impact indicator.
• Consideration of alignment with SDRF/NDRF norms.

Crop Insurance and Relief Assistance

• Call for synchronizing timeline of crop insurance disbursement with input subsidy (relief assistance).

Manual for Drought Management 2016 (updated in 2020) 

• Ministry of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, along with NIDM, NRSC, and MNCFC, introduces Remote Sensing technology-based Drought Manual 2016.
• Aim: Improved declaration, management, early warning, and mitigation of drought.

Remote Sensing Parameters

• Rainfall Based:
  • Rainfall Amount and Deviation.
  • Rainfall Distribution (Dry Spell).
  • Standard Precipitation Index.
• Crop Based:
  • Sowing Progression.
  • Crop Damage/Crop Yield.
  • Moisture Availability (Moisture Adequacy Index, Plant Available Water Content, etc.).
• Satellite Based:
  • Normalised Difference Vegetation Index.
  • Normalised Difference Wetness Index.
  • Vegetation Condition Index.
  • Soil Moisture.
• Hydrological Parameters:
  • Stream Flow.
  • Reservoir Level.
  • Groundwater Level.
• Socio-economic Parameters:
  • Availability of Food, Fodder, & Water.
  • Demand for Work.
  • Migration.

Three-Tier Drought Declaration Process

• Tier-I: Mandatory Indicator
  • Rainfall-based parameters are essential and mandatory for drought assessment.
  • Trigger-I area declaration based on satisfying mandatory indicators.
• Tier-II: Impact Indicators
  • Remote Sensing, Crop Situation, Soil Moisture, Hydrological indicators.
  • State may select any three of the four types for assessing drought intensity and making judgments.
• Verification: Ground Trothing
  • Ground-truthing to verify remote sensing results.

Declaration Steps

• Step-I:
  • If mandatory indicators are met, Trigger-I area is declared as drought-affected.
• Step-II:
  • State considers three impact indicators for assessing drought intensity and making a judgment.
• Step-III:
  • State conducts sample survey for ground-truthing.
  • Drought declaration through official notification, specifying geographic extent and administrative units.

Drought Timeline

• Kharif Drought:
  • Declaration not later than 30th October.
• Rabi Drought:
  • Declaration by 31st March.

Agro-Climatic Zones of India
The erstwhile Planning Commission (Present NITI Aayog) taking into account several scientific studies, on regionalisation of the agricultural economy recommended developing agricultural planning based on agro-climatic regions.

15 agroclimatic zones in India as categorized by the Planning Commission, along with their main features: