Assessment of meteorological drought for Semi-Arid region of Maharashtra

With the inception of climate change phenomenon occurrence of drought in a region has impacted the agricultural production. Occurrence of rainfall, its frequency and intensity are important characteristics which are being studied to trace the climate variability of any region. Standardized precipitation index was used to assess the drought for Solapur region of Maharashtra. Monthly rainfall data of 42 years of four monsoon months i.e. June, July, August and September was used to generate SPI values, based on these values drought was categorized into mild, moderate, severe and extreme drought. This study showed that there was deviation in rainfall received than the normal rainfall, also drought categories indicated that rainfall and its variation are critical and important for dry climatic conditions for crop planning. Based on drought assessment one can adopted drought mitigation strategies for drought proof agriculture in such rainfall deficit zone.

Drought intensity assessment for Dryland region is done using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI).

Rainfall deviation from normal rainfall is also studied for getting explicit idea of rainfall occurrence.