A Simple Rationally Integrated Drought Indicator for Rice–Wheat Productivity

Water is essential for growing food and in some areas without irrigation agricultural production would not possible. Crop specific agricultural drought assessment requires integrated information on meteorological parameters, soil characters and plant vegetative dynamics throughout the growing season. Meteorological, Crop Growth Simulation Model and Space based approaches have their own inherent limitations. The main objective of this study is to examine the possibility of developing a rationally integrated drought assessment indicator for rice–wheat productivity over Indo-Gangetic Plains in India (IGP-India). Rice( Oryza sativa )–Wheat( Triticum aestivum ) (RW) system is the major cropping system of the IGP-India and occupies 10 million hectares and provides food security and livelihoods to the people of this region. There are four major reasons for droughts in IGP-delay in the onset of monsoon/ failure of monsoon, variability of monsoon rainfall, long break in monsoon and areal difference in the persistence of monsoon. The Rational Integrated Drought Assessment Index (RIDAI) developed here explains 72% variations in rice productivity while it explains 94% variations of wheat productivity. Thus, this combined drought index tool captures all the drought years in the selected study area and this tool can be useful for getting preliminary assessment of drought impact, so that the researchers and planners can use this integrated tool for their decisions.