Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
a difficult assumption to test. The critical question with regard to
agricultural adaptation to climate variability and change, there-
fore, is whether substitution of technologies for climate would be
employed in the future? Advances in knowledge can permit the
substitution of more abundant resources for increasingly scarce
resources to reduce the constraints for agricultural production.
For example, innovation of early-maturing cultivars has the
greater potential of escaping the effects of drought, which would
be increasingly important to address the limitation of water scar-
city due to a change in rainfall pattern. In light of this discus-
sion, reorientation of the way society institutes the agricultural
research will be necessary to adapt and/or realise the opportuni-
ties for technical change provided by new climate. Therefore, a
research effort along the path induced by climatic stress is an
essential step if meaningful insights are to be obtained with
regard to agricultural adaptation to climate change.
11. 5
India's biophysical and climatic characteristics
India is gifted with heterogeneous landforms and variety of cli-
matic conditions such as the lofty mountains, the raverine deltas,
high altitude forests, peninsular plateaus, variety of geological
formations endowed with temperature varying from arctic cold
to equatorial hot, and rainfall from extreme aridity with a few
cms (<10 cm) to pre humid with world's maximum rainfall (1120
cm) of several hundred centimetre. This provides macro relief of
high plateau, open valleys, rolling upland, plains, swampy low
lands and barren deserts. These varying environmental situa-
tions in the country have resulted in a greater variety of soils.
Therefore, the systematic appraisal of agro-ecological regions
has tremendous scope in grouping relatively homogenous
regions in terms of soil, climate and physiography and condu-
cive moisture availability periods (length of growing season)
in planning appropriate land use (see Figure 11.2). The moun-
tain region that lies above the altitudes of 5000 m comprises
35% of India's 147,181 square kilometers of land. The Hills lie
between altitudes of 600 and 5000 m, and accounts for 42% of
the total land area. The flat Terai region, a northern extension
of the Gangetic plain, is located below the 600-m elevation and
comprises 23% of the total land area. Each of these regions rep-
resents a well-defined geographic area with distinct biophysical
characteristics that are significantly different from each other,
demanding location-specific technological innovations.
