Spells of dry days related to agricultural drought in India

Abstract

Efficacy of dry spells in identifying drought prone areas has been advanced in the study. For this purpose, daily rainfall from 1 June to 31October which nearly covers all growth phases of crops grown principally during kharif season for a 70-year period (1901-1970) for 26 stations in Maharashtra State have been analysed. Two types of dry days were classified. vtz., a day receiving less than 2 .5 mm of rainfall and receiving less than 6.3 mm or rainfall. Dry spells for both the categories have been computed and analysed. Similarly proba bilities of occurrence of dry spells of different lengths have been analysed. A theoretical distribution is also fitted to dry spells.
             The study revealed that logarithmic distribution nearly represents both categories or dry days. Analysis or dry spells and the probabilities onfirmed that the hard-core of the drought in Maharashtra State is located over Ahmednagar district. Other areas which possess high degree of drought proneness are eastern parts of Pune, Satara and Sangli districts and western parts of Sholapur, Aurangabad and Bhir districts. In coastal belt of Konkan and eastern parts of Vidarbha, the drought menace is ccmpara tlvely less