Climatic variability and Productivity of Rainfed Groundnut in Middle Gujarat Agroclimatic Zone

Nearly 80 per cent of the area under groundnut in India is rainfed and relies entirely on summer monsoon rainfall. An assessment on the impact of climatic variability on groundnut would provide basic information required for evaluating climatic potential of the region. Moisture deficit index derived from annual precipitation and potential evapotranspiration was used as a tool for identifying the climatic types in impact analysis on groundnut productivity in middle Gujarat. Majority of the years fell in the semi-arid category and the pod yields decreased with transition from humid to arid climatic conditions. Highly significant association (at 1%) was noticed between rainfall during 38^thand 39^th standard meteorological weeks and groundnut pod yield. Minimum temperature during early stages of pod filling (September 15^th to 30^th) was observed to significantly (at 5%) influence the groundnut yields. This study clearly depicts the influence of temporal variation in rainfall and temperature on the productivity of groundnut at Anand.