Tailoring strategies to rainfall variability - The choice of the sowing window

Rao, Narahari K and Gadgil, Sulochana and Rao, Seshagiri PR and Savithri, K (2000) Tailoring strategies to rainfall variability - The choice of the sowing window. In: Current Science, 78 (10). pp. 1216-1230.

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Abstract

The optimum sowing window for rainfed groundnut in the Anantapur region has been determined using the crop model PNUTGRO which has been validated for the region. It has been shown that the year-to-year variation of the rainfall patterns has a large impact on the model yield and its variation with sowing date. The results do not change much if the daily data for other meteorological variables such as temperature and radiation are replaced by the average daily values over the ten years for which these data are available. The variation in the model yield with sowing date for eighty-eight years for which daily rainfall data are available has shown that the broad solving window of 22 June-17 August presently used by the farmers is indeed the one that minimizes the risk of failure. We find that, within this broad window, sowing after mid-July enhances the yields considerably. At present, the farmers in this region use the first sowing opportunity in the broad window. Using the heuristic model to analyse the solving opportunities, it has been shown that postponing sowing until after mid-July does not involve much risk. It is also shown that incidence of locally triggered pests/diseases decreases when sowing is postponed to later than mid-July.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Current Science
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Indian Academy of Sciences.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2004
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:15
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/1712

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