Drought assessment on barley and millet production in Karnali Province, Nepal

Abstract

Spatio-temporal characteristics of agricultural drought and its impact on the yield of winter barley and summer millet crops in Karnali Province of Nepal were evaluated. For this purpose, precipitation data from 1988 to 2018 of 18 stations and agricultural data from 2003 to 2018 were used for the analysis. Standardized Precipitation Indices (SPI-3 and SPI-4) were used for measuring drought intensity. Based on drought intensity, SPI<-1 was considered for drought occurrence. Similarly, Standardized Residual Yield Series (SYRS) was also calculated for crop yield change, eliminating other factors responsible for crop yield. The result shows that Salyan, Surkhet, and Jumla districts have more occurrence of summer and winter drought in comparison to other districts. Similarly, 1999, 2002, 2004-05, 2008-09, 2012, and 2015 were considered as drought years in most stations. Moreover, the province experienced more winter drought events than summer and winter droughts are increasing after 2015. Concerning the impact of drought occurrence on cereal yield loss, barley seems to be more affected. SPI-3 and SYRS (barley) are significantly correlated in Jumla, Humla, Mugu, Jajarkot, Dailekh, Surkhet, and Salyan districts at 95% confidence. With the exception, drought occurrence has a larger impact on barley yield loss than drought severity in the study area. However, millet yield loss doesn't seem to be affected due to drought occurrence and intensity in all districts except Rukum, as millet is a drought-tolerant crop. Therefore, for sustainable agriculture practices, drought-tolerant crops like millet could be suitable in Karnali Province, where drought frequency is very high.

Analysis of Farmers’ Perceptions of Climate Changes and Adaptation Strategies in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

“…Some varieties of rice were tested for their drought tolerance and rainfed area farmers in the Mid Hill region of Nepal have started to grow these types of rice [70]. Furthermore, the major cereal crops, such as millet, were also found to be drought-tolerant crops for sustainable agricultural practices in the Karnali province of Nepal [71]. Due to increasing droughts, farmers changed their cropping patterns, planting calendar, and drought-tolerant crops and varieties and added fertilizer and pesticides to maintain their crop production in various parts of the country [10,31,66,72].…”

Features of Soil Tillage during the Cultivation of Spring Barley

“…At the same time, high-quality and valuable for food purposes is grain with a high protein content, which is formed exclusively in arid conditions [2]. And if in the phase of grain filling with its subsequent harvesting dry conditions and high air temperature are the most favorable, for the rest of the growing season, such conditions can adversely affect the development of plants as a whole [3].…”