U21AAGRB507 RAINFED AGRICULTURE AND
WATERSHED MANAGEMENT (1+1)
Presentation on
Drought – definition – types of droughts - effects of water deficits on physio – morphological
characteristics of the plants – mechanism of crop adaptation under drought.
Course teacher By
Dr. V. Rajendra Prasath., M.Sc.,(Agri.),Ph.D., AKASH S.
Department of Agronomy III yr. (hons.) Agri.,
CAGS-SMVEC SMVEC-CAGS.
What is Drought
■There is no universal definitions for drought.
■ Drought is a situation when the actual seasonal rainfall is deficient by
more than twice the mean deviation.
- Laskminarayanapuram Ananthakrishnan Ramdass.(1960)
Father of
Indian
agricultural
meteorology
Types of Drought
Drought is classified under three main categories..
■Based on the Duration.
■Based on the nature (Relevance) of the users.
■Based on the Time of Occurance.
Based on the Duration:
is classified into four types.
■ Permanent Drought.
■ Seasonal Drought.
■ Contingent Drought.
■ Invisible Drought.
Permanent Drought:
■ This is Characteristic of the desert climate where sparse vegetation
growing is adapted to drought and agriculture is possible only by
irrigation during entire crop season.
■ Common in Desert
Seasonal Drought:
■ This is found in climates with well defined rainy and dry season most of
the arid and semiarid zones fall in this category.
■ Duration of the crop varieties and planting dates should be such that the
growing should fall within rainy season.
■ Common in Arid and Semiarid.
Contigent Drought:
■ This involves an abnormal failure of Rainfall.
■ It may occur almost anywhere especially in most part of humid or
subhumid climates.
■ It is usually brief, Irregular and generally affects only a small area.
Invisible Drought:
■ When rainfall is inadequate to meet the evapotranspiration losses, the
result in borderline water deficiency in soil resulting in less than
optimum yield.
■ When precipitation < Evapotranspiration
Based on the nature(relevance)of the
user:
is classified into four types
■ Meteorological Drought.
■ Atmospheric Drought.
■ Hydrological Drought.
■ Agricultural Drought.
Meteorological Drought:
■ It is defined as a condition, where the annual precipitation is less than the
normal over an area for a prolonged period (month, season or year)
Atmospheric Drought:
■ It is due to low air humidity, frequently accompanied by hot dry winds.
■ It May occurs even under conditions of adequate available soil moisture.
■ Plants growing under favourable soil moisture regime are usually
susceptible to atmospheric drought.
Hydrological Drought:
■ Meteorological drought, when prolonged results in hydrological drought
with depletion of surface water and consequent drying of rerservoirs,
tanks etc.,
■ This is based on water balance and how it affects irrigation as a whole for
bringing crops to maturity.
Agricultural Drought:
■ It is the result of soil moisture stress due to imbalance between available
soil moisture and evapotraspiration of a crop.
■ It is usually gradual and progressive.
■ This situation arises as a consequence of scant precipitation or its uneven
distribution both in space and time ,
■ It is also usually referred as soil drought.
Important cause for agricultural drought
are :
■ Inadequate precipitation.
■ Erratic Distribution.
■ Long dry spells in the monsoon.
■ Late onset of monsoon.
■ Early withdrawal of monsoon.
Based on the time of occurance:
is classified into three types
■ Early season Drought.
■ Mid season Drought.
■ Late season Drought.
Early season Drought :
■ The early season droughts occurs in association with the delay in
commencement of sowing rains.
Mid-season Drought:
■ Mid season droughts occur in association with the breaks in south-west
monsoon.
■ If the drought conditions occur during the vegetative phase of crop
growth, it might result in stunted growth, low leaf area development and
even reduced plant population.
Late season or Terminal Drought:
■ If the crop encounters moisture stress during the reproductive stage due
to early cessation of the rainy season, there may be rise in temperature
hastening the process of crop development to forced maturity.
■ Therefore, late season droughts have to characterize on the basis of the
relationship between water availability to the crop during the
reproductive stage of crop growth and grain yield.
Effect of water deficits on physio-
morphological characteristics of the plant
■ Loss of durgidity leads to reduction in cell growth and development.
■ Reduced shoot growth and reduced leaf area expansion results in stunted
growth.
■ Decrease in photosynthesis due to decrease in diffusion of CO2 with the
closer of stomata to conserve water and reduce leaf area.
■ Mild drought increases the Respiration in Assimilation of
photosynthetase and increase drought lowers water content and
Respiration.
Continuee..
■ Breakdown of RNA and DNA , Reduced metabolic activities.
■ Imbition of synthetase and translocation of growth regulator such as
cytokinen, GA3, and IAA
■ Increase the synthesis of ABA and ethylene.
■ Hydrolysis of corbohyrates leads to increase in soluable sugar and
nitrogen compounds.
■ Rolling and wilting of leaves
■ Reduced tillers and branches.
Continue..
■ Forced maturity.
■ Accumulation of proline(Amino Acid) during stress.
■ Maturity is delayed if drought occurs before flowering and if advances if
drought occurs after flowering.
■ Increase internal temperature.
■ Increase ROS accumulation.
Mechanism of crop under Drought:
Escaping Drought:
■ Ephemerals:
These plants remain under dormant to avoid stress period by
seeds and shoots.
such plants complete their llifecycle in few weeks within the
rainy season
Eg. : CO16 variety of sorghum
They are called as Ephemerals.
Early varieties
■ Early varieties of crops are those that mature and produce a harvest
within three months of period
Drought avoidance(Drought
resistance)
restricting transpiration (water saver)
■ Early stomata closer
■ Increased photosynthetic efficiency.
■ Low rates of cuticular repiration.
■ Lipid depositon on foliage
■ Reduced leaf area
■ Morphology of leaf surface.
■ Water storage in the plant.
Drought Avoidance(Drought
resistance)
Accelerating water uptake
■ Efficient root system.
■ High root ratio
■ Increase osmostic potential
Drought tolerance (Drought
resistance)
Mitigating stress
■ Resistance to dehydration.
■ Thick cuticle
■ Maintenance of high osmotic pressure.
Drought tolerance(Drought
resistance)
High tolerance
■ Metabolic strain
■ Plastic strain.
Biochemical effects of drought tolerance
■ Accumulation of proline, glycinebetaines etc.
■ Synthesus of abscisic acid (ABA) etc.
Reference:
■ Reddy R.S., (2009)(pg. NO. 230-238), Dryland Crop Production,
EDITION-2, Kalyani publicaions.
