Climate change on crops in drought prone areas in Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Droughts are the resultant of acute water shortage due to lack of rains over
extended periods of time affecting various human activities and lead to problems like
widespread crop failure, un replenished ground water resources, depletion in lakes/
reservoirs, shortage of drinking water and, reduced fodder availability etc. The drought
prone areas in the country classified on annual rainfall departures fall either in arid, semiarid
and dry sub-humid regions where droughts occur frequently. As per the World
Agriculture Census (WAC) 2010-11, in Andhra Pradesh 7.62 million farmers of which
86.29% are Small and Marginal Farmers. With more than 50% of unirrigated area under
cultivation, agriculture continues to be monsoon dependant, primarily on South West
Monsoon (SWM) through which State receives 2/3 of its rainfall. The State with 5 chronically
drought prone districts (viz., Ananthapur, YSR Kadapa, Chittoor, Kurnool, and Prakasam)
out of 13 districts. The country as a whole received 936.7 mm of rainfall against normal
rainfall of 886.9 mm which represents a deviation of 6 percent above the Long Period
Average (LPA). Out of 622 districts for which rainfall data were available, 184 districts (30
per cent) received excess rainfall, 264 districts (42 per cent) received normal rainfall,
156districts (25 per cent) received deficient rainfall and 18 districts (3%) received scanty
rainfall. The present paper endeavours to examine the impact of climate change on crops in
Kadapa District of Andhra Pradesh.