Monitoring Agricultural Drought in Russia - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 204

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drought category; and

ij α are the absolute ranges (minimum and
maximum values) of the j th index of drought assessment. The minimum
value is zero for every index listed in table 15.3, while the maximum values
are 5, 3, 100, 11, 11, 70, 140, and 280 for each index listed in table 15.3,
respectively.
Recently, a Russian meteorological satellite (Meteor) has been used for
drought monitoring, in addition to satellites of the U.S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (chapters 5 and 6). Beginning in
1995, RF Roshydromet has carried out regular drought monitoring from
ground-based and satellite information (Kleschenko, 1998). Subsequent
studies in this direction will be aimed at obtaining a coordinated map of
aridity from satellite and ground data. These activities will be performed by
a Drought Monitoring Centre (DMC) that will be located in the territory of
the All-Russian Research Institute of Agricultural Meteorology (ARRIAM,
Obninsk, Russia).

ϕ ij α , ϕ

[204

Line
——
9.5
——
Norm
PgEn

Drought Early Warning System
In Russia and most of the CIS countries a drought warning system is in
its infancy. The Interstate Council for Hydrometeorology has taken a de-
ci sion to establish the DMC at the ARRIAM. One of the primary objec-
tiv es of this center is to develop the procedures for monitoring agricultural
dr oughts (intensity, area, duration), their early diagnosis, drought impact
on the condition of crops, pastures, meadows, and crop yields. A dekadal
bu lletin containing drought information will be issued for the period from
A pril to October. The following steps are involved in the development of
th is system: (1) agrometeorological information in a form of agrotelegrams
fo r the i th dekad is received from observation site of RF Hydrometeorolog-
ic al Service by ARRIAM (DMC), (2) ARRIAM estimates drought inten-
sit y during i th dekad, (3) the hydrometeorological center makes a monthly
w eather forecast in the territory of Russia, which is presented to ARRIAM
in early month, and (4) ARRIAM forecasts the expected drought develop-
m ent using the estimated drought category for the i th

[204

dekad and informs

po ssible users.

M easures for Drought Mitigation
Various biological, agrotechnical, and agrometeorological methods are
us ed to mitigate the adverse impact of arid conditions (Gringof, 2000).
These include (1) selecting drought-resistant crop varieties; (2) following
complex water-saving practices (crop rotation, leaving fallows, snow re-
tention, establishing field windbreaks, fertilizing, weed control, and effec-
tive irrigation including drip irrigation); (3) shifting the sowing dates; (4)
optimizing the winter and spring crop ratio; (5) presowing drying of germi-
nated seeds (i.e., inducing artificial drought before sowing that provokes