Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : An Agroclimatic Assessment of the Crop Growth Potential of South India

Auteur : Lekha, P V

Université de soutenance : Cochin University of Science and Technology

Grade : Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Meteorology 1992

Descriptif
The thesis consists of six Chapters of which the first Chapter gives the introduction to the problem and also the scope of the study. In the first Section of the second Chapter, relevant literature on water balance studies, estimation of potential evapotranspiration, studies on rainfall distributions, climatic classifications in general and agroclimatic classifications in particular, has been reviewed. The review also includes literature on evaluation of crop growth potentials and analysis of wet and dry spells over different climatic regimes. The second Section of this Chapter explains the method of estimation of potential evapotranspiration, water balance computations, and techniques used for the rainfall analysis (Gamma distribution method) in the investigation. The criteria employed for agroclimatic classification and the method of rainfall analysis to assess wet and dry spells by Markov chain model have also been given in detail.
The third Chapter comprises of a discussion of physical and climatic features of the study region. The first Section gives details about the location and extent, physiography, drainage, soil types, natural vegetation, land-use and the major crops grown in the region. The second Section concerns itself with the rainfall, temperature, and humidity characteristics of the region. The distributions of water balance parameters, namely potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, water deficit ano water surplus are also mapped and discussed in this Section.
The analysis of weekly rainfall, using Gamma distribution method and the agroclimatic classification, based on moisture availability index have been dealt with in Chapter IV. The crop potentials of individual stations of each agroclimatic type have been separately discussed in detail in this Chapter. Using the first order Markov chain model, the weekly rainfall has been analysed in the fifth Chapter to determine the probabilities of dry and wet spells and to assess crop growth potentials of different growing seasons in the region.
The sixth Chapter comprises of the summary of the study and conclusions about the agroclimatic assessment of the crop growth potential of South India.

Présentation et version intégrale (Shodhganga)