Cauvery row: Contingency crop plan necessary

Contingency crop planning refers to making available a plan for providing alternative crop or cultivar choices in tune with the resource endowments of rainfall and soils in a given location.

In rain-fed areas, as a general rule, early sowing of crops with the onset of monsoon is the best-bet practice, which gives higher yield.

Major crops affected because of monsoon delays are those that have a narrow sowing window and, therefore, cannot be taken up if the delay is beyond this cut-off date without major reduction in crop yield and only the change warranted could be the choice of short duration cultivars.

Beyond the sowing window, choice of alternative crops or cultivars depends on the farming situation, soil, rainfall and cropping pattern in the location and extend of delay in the onset of monsoon.

Breaks in monsoon cause prolonged dry spells and are responsible for early, mid and terminal droughts.

These aberrant situations often lead to poor crop performance or total crop failure. While early season droughts have to be compared with operations like gap filling and re-sowing, mid and late season droughts have to be managed through crop, soil, nutrient management and moisture conservation measures.

Drought also affects livestock milk productivity due to shortage of fodder.