Monitoring and Managing Agricultural Drought in India - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 306

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C rop Mixing and Integrated Farming

Crop mixing (i.e., growing multiple crops during the same growing season)
is also advisable to reduce drought impacts. If the rainfall pattern is not
suitable for one crop, it may be suitable for the other, and hence crop
production can be maximized under drought conditions.
The Central Arid Zone Research Institute at Jodhpur, Rajasthan, de-
veloped an integrated farming systems approach for sustainable crop pro-
duction in arid regions. Following this approach, crops such as pearl mil-
let, clusterbean, mothbean, and sesame were grown in combination with
traditional trees (e.g., Prosopis cineraria, T. undulata, A. albeda ), or in
co mbination with horticultural trees (e.g., Zizyphus cultvars).

[306

Sh elterbelts and Mulching

So il evaporation losses and high temperatures can be controlled by apply-
in g mulch materials. Shelterbelts are also useful in reducing high evapora-
tio n losses. Acacia nilotica spp. Indica shelterbelts have been found useful
in controlling wind speeds and thus reducing evaporative losses in the arid
re gions (Gupta et al., 1983). Shelterbelts of pearl millet provided to summer
ve getables modified the crop microclimate and increased the yields of okra
an d cowpea by 30-40% (Ramakrishna, 1985).

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O ptimizing and Improving Water Resources

After the severe drought in 1987, the government of India focused more
on optimizing the use of water from reservoirs and groundwater resources.
An integrated watershed management approach can contribute to planning
such optimization. In 1984-85, 4400 micro-watersheds covering 4.2 mil-
lion ha were identified.
The flash floods that sometimes occur in arid or semiarid regions of
India could also be used for augmenting groundwater sources through
percolation injection wells in conjunction with subsurface barriers. Over
past three decades, there has been phenomenal increase in the number of
tube wells in arid regions. These wells have supplemented drinking water
supply as well as irrigation for some commercial crops.
Under the auspices of the Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojna (i.e., the Indira
Gandhi Canal Project), a canal of more than 400 km length along the
w estern border and arid region of Rajasthan was constructed during 1961-
73. This canal carries about 7.59 million acre feet (MAF) of water from
Ravi-Beas rivers and irrigates about 1.1 million ha, which contributes an
additional production of 3.1 million tons of food grains every year. As a
result of this canal, the production of rice, groundnut, castor, rapeseed,
and mustard have increased several times (table 23.3).