Monitoring and Managing Agricultural Drought in India - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 308

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Line
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0.3
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Norm
PgEn

Figure 23.5 A Tanka—a common household rainwater harvesting system in Rajasthan,
India.

the drought severity was not widely felt, and no starvation deaths were
re ported because of the buffer stocks of food grains.

[308

E mployment Employment is generated under Food for Work program
an d now under Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (Integrated Rural Em-
pl oyment Scheme introduced in 2001) in which employment is provided to
on e member of each family affected by drought. Employees are engaged in
pr ojects related to deepening of Nadis (i.e., ponds; figure 23.6), construc-
tio n of medium and/or minor irrigation systems, soil conservation, pas-
tu re development and afforestation, construction of schools/governmental
bu ildings, and road building.

Potential Drought Research or Management Needs

W ater Use Estimation and Improving Storage
With increasing demand for water, the Indian arid region is likely to experi-
ence a deficit of about 2500 million m 3 by the year 2010 (Venkateswarlu et
al., 1990). However, an accurate estimate of water usage (both surface and
groundwater) is required to plan long-term measures to mitigate droughts,
and current water-storing methods practiced in the region need to be im-
proved. Old water-harvesting systems, such as rooftop water harvesting,
Nadis (village pond), Tankas (underground cistern), anicuts, and khadins