Published in Scientific Papers. Series E. Land Reclamation, Earth Observation & Surveying, Environmental Engineering, Vol. VIII
Written by Vijendra BOKEN
A case study was conducted for Yavatmal district of Maharashtra state of India where dryland agriculture dominates and where a significant number of farmers have committed suicides in recent years due to the lack of support systems necessary to manage an agrarian crisis. Using monthly temperature and the precipitation data during 2001-2013 period, a weather-based index was developed for the main crops of the district (sorghum, soybean, and pigeon pea; cotton was excluded) to assess the agrarian crisis due to low crops yields, in a more objective and less disputable way that could be preferred by a crop insurance company. While the mean value of WI was 1.0, its range was 0.64 to 1.32 for pigeon pea, from 0.94 to 1.12 for sorghum, and from 0.31 to 1.72 for soybean. These ranges could be further divided appropriately into qualitative categories of to define agrarian crisis for the purpose of designing crop insurance plans to support farmers at their hard times thus making agricultural profession more sustainable.
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