Monitoring Agricultural Drought in Russia - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 196

CHAPTER FIFTEEN 1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

M onitoring Agricultural Drought in Russia
A LEXANDER D. KLESCHENKO, ERODI K. ZOIDZE,

A ND VIJENDRA K. BOKEN

[196

Line
——
0.0
——
Norm
PgEn

Drought has been posing serious problems for agricultural production
in Russia. A well-known Russian scientist, Vavilov (1931), noted that
droughts characterize Russian farming. Recently, in some Russian Fed-
eration regions, there has been a high probability of severe or extremely
severe droughts (Pasechnyuk et al., 1977; ARRIAM, 2000; Kleschenko,
2000; Ulanova and Strashnaya, 2000; Zoidze and Khomyakova, 2000; ta-
ble 15.1).
Numerous definitions of drought are available in the Russian literature
(Bova, 1946; Alpatiev and Ivanova, 1958; David, 1965; Kalinin, 1981;
Polevoy, 1992; Khomyakova and Zoidze, 2001). However, Kleschenko
(2000) noted that all definitions are similar. Droughts are most frequently
observed in Russia (Povolzhie, North Caucasus, Central-Chernozem re-
gions, Ural, West and East Siberia) as well as in other Commonwealth
of Independent States (CIS) countries: Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, and Armenia.
The Povolzhie, North-Caucasus, and Central-Chernozem regions con-
tribute significantly to the Russian economy because these regions have
fertile chernozems soils and produce most (about two-thirds) of the food
grains—wheat and rye during the winter season and wheat, maize, and bar-
ley during the spring season. In recent moisture-favorable or nondrought
years (1978, 1990 and 2001), the total grain production was 130 million
tons, while during drought years (1975, 1981, 1995 and 1998), the pro-
duction declined by half (Ulanova and Strashnaya, 2000).
Decline in food grain yields was observed from 1917 to 1990 in the
former USSR, and since 1990 in the post-Soviet Russia. Rudenko (1958)
reported that Ukraine experienced severe droughts during 1875, 1889,
1918, and 1921, when the spring wheat yield was 70% of the mean yield. A
sudden depression in the winter rye yield was observed in Povolzhie region

[196

196