Centre for Environment Science and Climate Resilient Agriculture (CESCRA)

16 August 2012

DRAFT

DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN 2012 MEWAT, HARYANA

Mewat, a district in Haryana in North West India, has been stressed by periodic drought in recent years. Climate change is expected to increase the drought events.

A Drought Contingency Plan is needed to minimize the adverse impacts of drought conditions through 2012 and beyond.

To implement such a plan, coordination among the Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) team, village level leaders, state department functionaries and farmers needs to be improved. A close watch on rainfall situation and water resources, development of early warning capabilities, water shortage impact assessments and response and recovery programs in the affected blocks are the prerequisites for implementing this plan. The plan will also need to be reviewed and updated regularly to provide current information, technology and strategies to address the issues of drought.

The community-based drought contingency plan should be prepared during April-May and September-October each year to develop strategies for kharif and rabi season, respectively.

The current drought contingency plan 2012 includes a general framework of planning and coordination for drought affected blocks in Mewat to facilitate drought response and management; identifies agricultural activities and strategies that may be implemented to minimize drought impacts during current season and next rabi season and develops modalities to enhance effective coordination of all stakeholders in the drought affected area.

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Location and Rainfall

Mewat is situated at 28° 06/ N and 77° 00/ E; and at altitude of 200m above mean sea level.

The cumulative rainfall deficit during June to 1st August 2012 was >80%. During June/July, actual rainfall was 30 mm against the mean normal rainfall of 212.8 mm. The Nuh block in Mewat received 140 mm while Tauru block received 193 mm during June to 15th August 2012.

With the current year drought condition, area under fallow increased from traditional 20-25 per cent to 35 – 40 per cent for in situ moisture conservation during kharif to be used for early sowing of mustard/ wheat crops in Nuh and Tauru blocks. However, in the project villages the area under fallow is relatively less i.e.10 per cent owing to introduction of fodder crops, short duration vegetables, and moong crop.

In response to the recent drought in Mewat region, NAIP Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) project of IARI advised the project partners/beneficiaries/stakeholders in August 2012 to take immediate actions to manage the crisis. Based on the overall rainfall information and water resources availability, the CCA, IARI team developed a Drought Contingency Plan to address the possibility of continuing dry conditions.

Interventions by the CCA, IARI team

1. Green gram (Moong): Technological intervention support was provided to 128 farming families (50 acres) under CCA project. This year drought impacted the green gram crop severely. The affected number of farmers were 25 out of 38 farmers covering 11acres (out of 18 acres) in Bima /Palla/Palladi/Sonkh cluster,

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while only 1 farmer out of 113 farmers in Tauru block was affected due to severe soil moisture stress. The farmers of Tauru used life saving irrigation in moong to minimize the adverse impact of drought.

2. Fodder Sorghum (cvs. Sudex & Rosilla): 155 farming families (46 acres) were supported for fodder cultivation in the project villages. There were no reports of severe crop damage but few reports were available for slow growth of fodder crop.

3. Pigeonpea (cvs. P2001/P2002/P991/P 992): CCA project supported 60 farmers (36 acres) with pigeonpea farming technology in the project villages. In general, pigeonpea crop takes longer time to mature while sown during onset of monsoon i.e. June end. Tauru block is traditionally a pigeonpea growing area but due to non-availability of suitable short duration pigeonpea crop varieties, some changes in cropping system have been reported. In Bima cluster, the crops, which were sown during May (with application of irrigation water), were partially affected due to high temperature and high soil moisture deficit. In Bima cluster, about 40 per cent area of pigeonpea was affected (i.e.3 out of 7 acres). However, overall in Tauru block, pigeonpea crop was not affected.

4. Pearl Millet (cv. P-383): The project supported100 farmers (68 acres).In Bima areas 10-15% of farmers faced complete (100%) crop loss due to drought; where as 25 per cent of the farmers reported partial damage. In Tauru block, the crop was not much affected; though poor growth was reported by some farmers.

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Action taken during July 2012

In Bima, farmers were encouraged to go for vegetable cultivation and were provided with good quality vegetable seed of suitable varieties to capture early market demand:

a. Brinjal (Pusa Uttam) – 5 acresDate of Sowing -10 JulyDate of Transplanting-15-20 August

b. Bottle guard (Pusa Naveen) – 1.5 acresDate of Sowing-1st week of July

c. Onion (Pusa Red) – 2 farmersDate of Sowing-1st week of July

d. Cauliflower* (Pusa Meghna) – 5 acresDate of Sowing-10 July(*Cauliflower seedlings were affected by high temperature during July as reported by few farmers)

Contingency plan

1. For traditional fallow areas and areas that could not be sown due to drought: Conserve in situ soil moisture in the field and conserve rain water during August and early September. This is to be done by forming big clods through coarse ploughing followed by planking.

2. The situation where crop growths are very poor and beyond recovery, either plough down the crop or feed to the cattle and prepare the field to conserve rainwater. Also get the land ready for sowing of early mustard crop.

3. For standing crop of sorghum/ Pearl Millet / Pigeonpea in rainfed areas:

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a. Farmers are advised to thin out the plant population upto 15-20% in standing crop.

b. Remove the weeds from the standing crop (hand weeding)

c. Dust mulching by pulverizing the top soil.

d. If possible, provide life-saving irrigation to crop at critical stages

e. Apply anti-transpirant such as kaolin spray (6% w/w) on crop.

4. For drought affected farmers having limited irrigation facilities: Besides above mentioned options, prepare the fields for short season vegetable crops/varieties; such as Tomato, Cowpea (Lobia), Brinjal, Cabbage/Cauliflower during August to November followed by wheat crop (Late sown wheat varieties; for example WR544, HD 2985).

5. Farmers are advised to take up early sown Mustard (cvs. Pusa Mustard- 25 and Pusa Mustard- 26, Pusa Agrani) – sowing by first week of September to harvest by first fortnight of December followed by sowing of wheat crop in second fortnight of December.

6. Alternatively, prepare the land for mustard- normal sowing (cvs. Pusa Tarak, Pusa Mahak, Pusa Bold) during first fortnight of October.

7. Farmers are advised to use efficient irrigation techniques such as sprinkler / rain gun for irrigation in wheat and mustard. Apply irrigation at the most critical stages as advised by agriculture experts and state department officials.

8. Farmers having buffalos/cows are advised to provide green fodder along with mineral mixture @ 50g/animal/day for both milch and non-milch animals for next 60 days.

9. Special care should be taken for deworming of calves.

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Prepared under the supervision of

Dr. H.S.Gupta, Director

Dr. MalabikaDadlani, Jt. Dir. (Res)

Prepared by

Drs. S.K. Bandyopadhyay, S. Naresh Kumar, R.N.Padaria, M. Khanna, V.Pooniya, H.Pathak

Assisted by

Drs. S. Chander, R.N.Sahoo, Bidisha Chakrabarti, D.K. Das, S. Prasad, Mr. H. Ramesh, Md. Rashid, Mr. R. John

Acknowledgements

Drought Contingency Plan could not have been accomplished without the input and assistance from the following colleagues and agencies: Head, CESCRA; Head, Agriculture Physics; Head, Agronomy; Dy Dir. Agriculture (Mewat); Dr. R.N.Sharma; Ms. Charu Tomar, T.O. (Mewat).

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