Monitoring and Managing Agricultural Drought in India - Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study - page 310

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severe droughts in at least 20 years of the past century and faced a dras-
tic drop in food grains production. Due to various measures undertaken
to mitigate droughts and to increase food grain production, India has not
only become self-reliant but produces more than its requirements. Surplus
production contributes to buffer stocks that are used to supplement food
production during drought years. Nevertheless, its fodder is in short supply
even in normal years. Because impact of the drought is greater on livestock
than on humans, there is a need to strengthen fodder banks in rural areas
to alleviate impacts on livestock.
The risk of crop production in drought-prone areas can be minimized
by adopting alternate cropping strategies, efficient utilization of rain water
through soil and water conservation measures, watershed development,
runoff farming, and irrigation. For an early warning, the drought and
crop surveillances should be carried out using short or medium range
meteorological forecasts, remote sensing techniques, and computer models
such as the SPAW, CERES-millet/rice/sorghum, and RANGETEK models
combined with GIS capabilities for monitoring crop yields and agricultural
drought. A drought monitoring system based on satellite data is currently
operational in India; however, there is a need to thoroughly test its accuracy
and improve its performance by including information provided by crop
growth models and satellite data with a better resolution.

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AC KNOWLEDGMENTS Dr. Pratap Narain, director, CAZRI, Jodhpur, provided the
fa cilities and encouragement for writing this chapter. The assistance provided by
A. S.R.'s wife, Indira, his daughter, Lakshmi Prashanthi, and his son, Murali Raj, is
duly acknowledged.

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