Droughts in Agricultural Production

Drought is considered to be a normal feature of climate especially in tropical countries where occurrence of periods of dry weather during rainy season is common. Virtually droughts can occur in all climates and they can also be witnessed when the air temperatures are higher than the normal for a longer period that increases both evaporation and water deficit. 1. The first deals with the introduction to the topic, historical evidences of drought and famines in India. 2. The definition of droughts, criteria for classification of droughts, drought indices based on rainfall, climate derivatives and remote sensing are covered under two. 3. Information on climate change with respects to climate trends, projections on temperature and rainfall at global as well at national level, consequences of climate change on droughts are presented in there. 4. Approaches on drought monitoring, adopted by various countries, international cooperation in drought monitoring and drought monitoring mechanism in India are presented in four. Decision Support Systems and applications of GIS for drought monitoring are also covered in this . 5. World food production and its variability, the impact of phenomenal drought during 2009 on food grain production in different countries, impacts of droughts on livestock, milk and fisheries production are covered under five. 6. Global surface waters, availability of surface waters in India, influence of drought on fauna and flora of surface waters and global warming on water resources at global and national level is discussed in - six. 7.