Karnataka facing ‘green drought’ says Minister

Subject :Geography

Section: Physical geography

Context:

Centre’s drought review team starting its tour of 13 drought-affected districts in Karnataka. The 10-member inter-ministerial Central team, led by Joint Secretary of Agriculture department Ajit Kumar Sahu, will be touring Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Dharwad, Gadag, Koppal, Ballari, Vijayanagar, Chickballapura, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davangere, and Bengaluru Rural districts.
The State government has urged the team to understand the impact of rainfall deficiency on agriculture rather than arriving at a conclusion looking at the standing crops.

What is ‘green drought’?

Green drought is when the vegetation may appear green on the top, but there is stunted growth and soil moisture stress for more than a month impacting yield drastically.
This phenomenon is particularly problematic because it can be challenging to detect and monitor.

Green drought situation in Karnataka:

There are 15 states that are facing drought, only Karnataka has declared drought and approached the Centre so far.
In drought-hit regions of Karnataka the height of a tur plant, which is still green, has come down to 2.5ft as against the normal 5ft. The yield has fallen.
Usually, each bunch of green gram will have 200 gm yield. This has come down to 50 gm now.
Karnataka has witnessed 15 drought years between 2001 and 2022.
Agricultural crop loss on 39.74 lakh hectares. Horticultural crop loss on 1.82 lakh hectares
Most crops like paddy, ragi, red gram, groundnut, sunflower and cotton are usually sown in July and August; This year, however, they remain unsown due to erratic distribution of rain.
Geo-fencing of 20,221 plots done. Overall in all 196 taluks, 85 percent of the ground truth reveals more than 50 percent crop loss.

Source: TH