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MahaMADAT (Drought Assessment in Maharashtra)


               Intrpoduction

                       Maharashtra have been traditionally susceptible to droughts owing to its extreme
               dependence  of  agricultural  operations  on  the  monsoon  rainfall  and  poor  bequest  of

               surface  and  groundwater resources.    Maharashtra  Government  have  devoted  sizable
               resources in strengthening resilience to droughts through creation of irrigation potential,

               soil  and  water  conservation,  watershed  management,  development  of  stress  tolerant

               crop varieties, improved agronomic practices, etc. All these efforts undoubtedly blunted
               the edge of droughts to a larger extent, yet the distress and disruption in the livelihood

               of vulnerable sections of rural society, is at stake.

                       Drought,  being  a  recurrent  phenomenon  in  Maharashtra,  has  its  destructive

               effects through sharp decline in agricultural production and farm incomes, eventually,
               culminated  into  shrinkage  in  opportunities  for  rural  employment  causing  widespread

               migration among farmers, farm labors, rural artisans and small rural businesses.

                       To a larger extent technological advances have substantiated the need for sole

               dependence  on  crop  productivity  assessment  based  on  annewari/paisewari  or  crop
               cutting assessments in the determination of drought. Now, it is possible to arrive at an

               objective, timely and accurate assessment of drought through the establishment of an
               elaborate scientific drought monitoring methodology.


               The  early  warning  and  assessment  of  agricultural  drought  requires  handling  a  wide
               range of data, generally from different sources, sharing a common spatial and / or non-

               spatial  component  that  making  it  possible  to  analyze  and  represent  it  in  the  form  of

               maps  and  statistics.  Development  of  a  dedicated  Geo-Portal  system  for  drought
               assessment would streamline the implementation of the drought declaration activities.

                       In this context MRSAC developed Geo-Portal based on the guidelines provided
               in  Manual  for  Drought  Management  2016,  brought  out  by  Ministry  of  Agriculture,

               Cooperation & Farmers' Welfare, Govt. of India, and further summarized and enacted





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