IMPACT OF PRECIPITATION ON YIELDS OF MAJOR CROPS IN TELANGANA - A DISTRICT WISE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Climate change is a long-term phenomenon in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over a region. It causes changes in weather parameters like temperature and precipitation. Precipitation changes would have consecutive effects on water resources, soil moisture, agricultural activities, irrigation schedules, soil erosion etc. (Zamani et al., 2018). Rainfall, being a crucial parameter of climate change influences the crop production in terms of quantum of rainfall received and its distribution. To understand
its variability in distribution, seasonal PCI was calculated at district level for the state of Telangana over the past 30 years (1988-2017). The outcomes indicated that all the regions have moderate PCI esteems (11 to 15) and high PCI esteems (16 to 20) in dispersion of precipitation. The high concentration of the PCI implied that the distribution of rainfall is not uniform and highly concentrated in some years. Further, the study has examined the impact of PCI on yield of three major crops (rice, maize and cotton) and revealed that the relationship between PCI and crop yields of rice and maize are found to be non-significant in all the districts. While cotton was found to have significant yield reduction with increased PCI was observed in Khammam, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal districts as cotton is more sensitive crop to rainfall in both the shortfall and excessive rainfall case.