7.        Establishment of Crop-Weather Watch Group

During  1979  drought, the  Ministry of  Agriculture set up  a  watch  group consisting of  representatives from the   Department   of   Agriculture,   India Meteorological  Department  (IMD),  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research (ICAR), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and others. A two pronged strategy was adopted which focussed on curative and preventive measures. They were to provide weekly reports of rainfall, agricultural operations, market prices, employment and other activities during drought period. The twelve point program was created to avert Trikal (Akal, Jalkal, Tinka), which means to take care of food, water and fodder to avoid starvation deaths. Various components of  the  twelve-point  program that  provided  relief  were:  (i)  full-time  relief officers; (ii) proper monitoring; (iii) availability of food grains; (iv) opening of fair  price  shops;  (v)  curtailing  activities  of  anti-social  elements;  (vi)  food  for work program; (vii) food for nutrition; (viii) contingency planning; (ix) public health  safety  measures;  (x)  boring  wells  for  drinking  water,  and  (xi)  cattle camps and relief measures.

8.        International Efforts

UN Convention   to   Combat   Desertification (UNCCD) in countries experiencing  serious  drought  and/or desertification has  been  established  as  a nodal  agency to  coordinate drought/desertification  and  mitigation strategies in different countries  of  the  world.  The  main  objective  of  this  convention  is  to combat   desertification   and  poverty alleviation  in   countries   facing   serious drought  and/or  desertification  through  an  effective  International Cooperation and  Partnership  Arrangements  in  the  frame  work  of  an  integrated  approach consistent with Agenda 21 of the Rio Conference. Achieving this objective will involve long-term integrated  strategies  that  focus  simultaneously on  improved productivity of land and water resources leading to enhanced living conditions, in  particular  at  the  community  level.  The convention  as  is  the  case  with  the Agenda  21,  emphasizes  general  principles,  institutions,  policies  and  processes covering following:

(i)  Integrating environmental and developmental goals for cross-sectoral planning.

(ii) Cross-sectoral planning at national level called the National Action Plan of the country.

(iii) Participatory     and     decentralized     approaches     to   planning      and implementation.

(iv) Building institutional and human capacity.

(v) Information exchange and networking.

9.        Feed Back from Past Drought Mitigation Efforts

There was hardly any sustained medium and long range policy or strategy prior to 2002.  Temporary measures in the form of relief were adopted during the  calamity  whereas  mitigation  or  moderation  has  to  be  designed  during normal or excessive rainfall years.

(i)       Lack   of   integrated   planning   was   considered   a   major   constraint   in achieving the objectives.  Most activities were planned and executed on a sectoral basis e.g.  animal husbandry, agriculture, soil and  water  conservation etc. independent of each other. This lacked synergy in achieving the expected benefits.

(ii)      Non-participation   of    local   communities    from    beginning    either    in preparation of plans or in their execution. As a result, the program did not have backing of vast indigenous knowledge possessed by the communities in terms of adaptations.

(iii)    Non-integration of works with developmental planning.  The  drought prone  areas  relief  works  were  rarely  integrated  with  area  development  plans designed to conserve soil and rain water and to generate other income earning opportunities on  a sustained  basis  which  could  mitigate the adverse effects of droughts on a lasting basis.

(iv)     Non-availability of accurate and reliable spatial and temporal data was a fundamental bottleneck.  For example, provision of free/subsidized electricity lowered ground water in excess of its annual replenishment.

10.      Early Warning and Forecasting of Drought

Drought in the Indian region can be monitored from the progress of onset and withdrawal of southwest monsoon.  Weather forecasts broadly can be classified into three categories viz., (i) short range forecast (validity for less than 3 days), (ii) medium range forecast (validity from 3-10 days period), and (iii) long range forecast (validity for more than 10 days). These forecasts are issued by the India Meteorological Department through All India Radio, Doordarshan, private channels and various Newspapers.  The  National  Centre  for  Medium Range Weather Forecast in the department   of   Science   and   Technology disseminates  weather  related  information  through  its  network  of  82  Agro-met Advisory Service (AAS) units located mainly in State Agricultural Universities and ICAR institutes. The ICAR funded All India Coordinated Research Project on Agro-meteorology is operative at 22 centres in the country.  The main objectives of this project are: characterization of climate, crop-weather relations, crop  weather  modeling,  weather  related  forewarning  of incidence  of diseases and pests and agro advisory service to the farmers. Some private companies are also collecting and trading weather information to bankers, insurance and forward trading agencies.

                                                                                                                  Ministry of Agriculture, GOI.