COMPARISON OF AGRICULTURAL SITUATION OF INDIA FOR TWO YEARS (2017 AND 2018) USING VARIOUS DROUGHT ASSESSMENT INDICATORS DURING SOUTH WEST MONSOON SEASON IN INDIA

Abstract. Agricultural drought is concerned with the soil moisture deficiency in relation to meteorological droughts and climatic factors and their impacts on agricultural production and economic profitability. Present study is based on two years kharif seasons i.e. 2018 and 2017, comparison of drought assessment using remote sensing, soil moisture indices, rainfall and crop sown area as per the New Drought Manual, December, 2016. The drought assessment was carried out at district and sub-district level under National Agricultural Drought Assessment and Monitoring System (NADAMS) project. Drought trigger-1 is checked with rainfall deviation and dry spell. During 2017, the final drought categories were defined on the basis of Rainfall, Moisture and Vegetation Condition Index. During 2018, the final district level drought categories are defined using 3 indicators, where sown area upto end of August was also considered. Based on the approach defined in the New Drought Manual, analysis was carried out at district level for 17 major agricultural drought prone states of the country. State wise Rainfall deviation, dry spell, NDVI/NDWI situation was compared for both the years. Remote sensing based vegetation and water indices are important impact indicator out of 4 because it gives an idea of crop profile and surface wetness condition respectively. Thus the present study is an attempt to compare the drought situation in kharif season of years 2017 and 2018 on the basis of different impact indicators.