Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

DRY SPELL ANALYSIS IN HIGH RAINFALL KONKAN REGION OF MAHARASHTRA

S.B. Nandgude, D.M. Mahale and S.S. Shinde

Abstract

Dapoli in Konkan is located on the west coast of Maharashtra state with highest rainfall, lateritic soil and the major crop is paddy. The mean annual rainfall was 3587 mm. Kharif, Rabi and summer season receive 3020 mm, 240mm and 20mm rainfall respectively. The months of June, July, August, September and October receive average rainfall of 611.2 mm, 1200 mm, 810mm, 400 mm and 190 mm respectively. About 84% of annual rainfall was received in Kharif. From the daily rainfall data of the station the rainfall characteristics such as onset of effective monsoon, withdrawal of monsoon, weekly rainfall, dry spells and critical dry spells were estimated. It was observed that more numbers of dry spells were occurring during transplanting stage (25th June-1st July) and grain filling stage (3rd Sept-9th Sept) and consequently reducing the productivity. Supplemental irrigation through rainwater harvesting is essential to increase the crop production. Critical dry spell duration for Dapoli was of 8 days and more. To minimise the problems faced by farmers in the region for better crop productivity and irrigation management the attempt has been made to emphasis the need of frequency analysis of climatological data.