eChapters

Introduction

Low and erratic rainfall, extreme temperatures, long sunshine duration, high wind velocity, high evapotranspiration, low fertility of soil and paucity of water resources characterize hot arid region of India. Despite these hostile conditions, the region supports a large number of human and livestock population. However, the ever increasing human and livestock population and developmental activities exerts enormous pressure on natural resources and posing serious threat to sustainability of the region. In these hostile environmental conditions, several indigenous agroforestry systems are being practiced by farmers of this region (Shankarnarayanan et al. 1987). The agroforestry, which is a dynamic, ecologically based natural resource management practices that, through the integration of trees and other tall woody plants on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversify production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits (ICRAF 2000). A number of studies have recognized the multiple benefits of agroforestry that include carbon sequestration, reducing forest degradation, biomass production, food security, income diversification, improvement and maintenance of soil biodiversity, provision of wildlife corridors, and a host of other ecological services and social benefits. In the last three decades, agroforestry has been widely promoted in the tropics as a natural resource management strategy that attempts to balance the goals of agricultural development with the conservation of soils, water, local and regional climate

Introduction

The rate of increase in anthropogenic CO₂ concentration of the atmosphere is increasing at an alarming rate from 1.7 µmol mol-1 yr-1 in 2009 (Tans 2009) to 2.2 µmol mol-1 yr-1 in 2013 (WMO 2013). At this rate, its level in the atmosphere will reach around 450 µmol mol-1 by the turn of century from its current concentration of 400 µmol mol-1, leading to increased global warming and concomitant climate change. There is, thus, a very strong scientific interest in finding ways to slow or reverse this trend. Mitigation strategy of diverting CO₂ from atmosphere to soil by adopting appropriate agricultural practices such as conservation agriculture (CA) is a recognized such method (Lal 2008 a, b). Broadly, CA has three major components- reduced tillage, crop residue management, and intensive cropping. Conservation tillage practices which include reduced tillage (RT) and no-tillage (NT) have been amply demonstrated as the agricultural practices that are very helpful in this direction (West and Post 2002; Franzluebbers 2010).

Effect on SOC and N losses through runoff and soil erosion

With increase in population, agriculture is being extended to even marginal soils which were hitherto uncultivated. Such soils are more seriously prone to erosion losses (FAO 2008), mostly because of their topographical position. Overall, soil organic matter and nutrient rich surface soil erosion could become more serious threat in the wake of changing climate in future; therefore, it is necessary to find suitable remedy measures to sustainable food production while protecting the soil from erosion.

Introduction

Agriculture is the mainstay of livelihood activity of about 70% of the state’s population. Madhya Pradesh is an agrarian state and the state’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture. Considering the sector’s sensitivity to climatic parameters it can be easily understood that the sector would be highly impacted by any change in these parameters.

Madhya Pradesh has a subtropical climate with three distinct seasons’ viz. winter from December to February, followed by summer season from March to May and rainy season extending from June to October. During winters the mean temperature remains around 10ºC and mean maximum temperature remains 25ºC and the minimum temperature goes down to 1°C in some regions. During summers, the mean minimum temperature is 22ºC and mean maximum is 38ºC. The maximum temperature during summer can go up to 48ºC, especially in May and June which are the hottest months.

Case Study    :    Orissa Super Cyclone 1999

3.1.Processes
                    
    Leaching                    
    Fragmentation/Comminution
    Catabolism                    
    Decomposition models
                
3.2. Patterns
                    
    Litter decomposition
    Root decomposition                    
    Limit values for decomposition            
    Decomposition pattern in ecosystems

2.1    Definition of Droughts
    
2.2    Types of Droughts
    2.2.1    Meteorological Droughts
    2.2.2    Agricultural Droughts
    2.2.3    Hydrological Droughts
    2.2.4    Socio-economic Droughts
    
2.3    Criteria for Classification of Droughts
    Meteorological Droughts
    Agricultural Droughts
    Hydrological Droughts
    
2.4    Data requirements in Drought Analysis
    
2.5    Drought Indices
    2.5.1    Rainfall-based Indices
    2.5.2    Climate Derivate Based Indices
    2.5.3    Remote Sensing Based Indices
    2.5.4    Processes Based Indicators
    
2.6    Assessment of Drought Prone Regions in India
    
2.7    Indicators for Declaration of  Droughts in India
    2.7.1     Rainfall Deficiency
    2.7.2    Area Under Sowing
    2.7.3    Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
    
2.8    Drought Management Procedures in India
    
2.9    Drought Code adopted by Local Governments
    
2.10    Spatial Variability of Droughts and their Frequency of Occurrence in India
    
2.11    Drought Vulnerability Assessment
    
2.12    Vulnerability of Society to Drought
        
References

Good Practices for Drought Management
    7.1    Drought Planning and Preparedness
    7.1.1    Drought Planning in India
    7.2    Global Experiences in Drought Planning
    7.2.1    USA
    7.2.2    South Africa
    7.2.3    African Nations
    7.2.4    Namibia
    7.2.5    Ethiopia
    7.2.6    Botswana
Drought management plans in Europe
    7.2.7    Spain
    7.2.8    England and Wales
    7.2.9    Portugal
    7.2.10    Australia
    7.2.11    China
    7.2.12    Palestine
    7.2.13    Global Initiatives
    7.3    Drought Preparedness Action Plans in India
    7.3.1    Drought Preparedness Checklist
    7.4    Drought Preparedness Action Plans in Different Countries
    7.4.1    Arizona State in USA
    7.4.2    Texas State in USA
    7.4.3    Italy
    7.4.4    Mediterranean Region
    7.4.5    Pakistan
    7.4.6    Darfur in Sudan
    7.4.7    Bangladesh
    7.5    Indigenous Knowledge for Drought Management
    7.5.1    Astro Meteorological Methods
    7.5.2    Traditional Knowledge in Weather Prediction
     7.5.3    Traditional wisdom in Drought Risk Region (DRR)
        Rajasthan and Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh
    7.5.4    Indigenous technologies for moisture conservation 
        in dry lands of semi-arid regions of India
    7.6    Traditional Wisdom for Drought Management in a few selected countries
    7.7    Role of Weather-based Agro-advisories
    7.7.1    Strategies for dissemination of advisories
    7.7.2    Role of ICAR and AICRPAM on Agromet Services
    7.7.3    Agromet Advisory services through mobile phone
    7.7.4    Status of Agromet Advisory Services in other Countries
    7.8    Value Addition to Agromet Information
    7.8.1    AICRP on Agrometeorology
    7.8.2    Thumb rules for weather-pest/diseases
    7.9    Contingency Crop Planning for Minimizing Risks
    7.9.1    Contingency Crop Planning for Rainfed Regions of India
    7.10    Drought Proofing Mechanisms
    7.10.1    Watershed Development for Drought Management
    7.10.2    Watershed Development in India
    7.10.3    The Success Stories of Watershed as a Drought Proofing Mechanism
    7.10.4    Watershed Policies and Recommendations
    7.10.5    Farm Ponds for Drought Management
    7.10.6    Success Stories of Farm Ponds
    7.11    Rainfed Technologies for the Drought Management in different agro climatic region
    7.12    Farmer’s Awareness on Climate Management
    7.12.1    India
    7.12.2    In other Countries
    7.13    Role of ICT in Climate Risk Management through AAS
    7.13.1    India
    7.13.2    Application of ICT in Providing Advisories in other Countries
    7.14    Integrated Drought Management Strategies through Farming Systems Approach
    7.14.1    Drought Adaptation Strategies in Rajasthan and in Maharashtra
    7.14.2    Improvement and Rural Livelihood
    7.15    Drought Mitigation Measures
    7.15.1    Drought Mitigation Plans
    7.15.2    Soil water Conservation and Recharging of Ground water Methods
    7.15.3    Traditional Water Harvesting and Conservation 
        Techniques
        References

4.1    Approaches for Drought Monitoring
    
4.2    Weather Network System in Different Countries
    
4.3    Drought Monitoring using Climatological, Hydrological and Combination Approaches in Different Countries
    
4.4    International Cooperation in Drought Monitoring
    
4.5    Drought Monitoring Mechanism in India
    
4.6    Early Warning and Decision Support System
    4.6.1    Software for Drought Detection, Monitoring and Early Warning
    4.6.2    Decision Support System for Droughts Developed Outside India
    
4.7    GIS and Drought Monitoring
        
References

Introduction

Drought is temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly below the normal or expected amount for a specific period. This condition occurs either due to inadequacy of rainfall or lack of irrigation facilities, unexploitation or deficient availability for meeting the normal crop requirement in the context of the agro-climatic conditions prevailing in any particular area. This has been scientifically computed as Moisture Index (MI). Drought in this context can be defined as adverse MI or adverse water balance which may be attributable not only to a prolonged dry spell due to lack or sufficient rainfall but also due to such other factors as excessive evapo-transpiration losses, high temperature, low soil holding etc.

Appendix-'C'    :    Damage Prevention and Rehabilitation by Retrofitting
    
Appendix-'D'    :    Dos and Don'ts While Constructing Buildings
    
Case Study    :    Bhuj Earthquake 26th January, 2001
            Eyjafjallajoekull (Iceland) Volcano - 2010

Introduction

The literatures and researcher data showed that there is negative impacts of agricultural expansion, landscape modification and deforestation on biodiversity, ecosystem services, alteringthe species composition and their ecological functions (Tscharntke et al. 2005; Priess et al. 2007; Flynn et al. 2009; Senior et al. 2013; Deguines et al. 2014; Kumar 2016) which can lead to considerable changes in critical ecosystem processes. On the other hand, an increasingly industrialized global economy, rapid population growth, land degradation, land use pattern and role of various human activities have led to dramatically increased the pressure on the natural resources such as the available land for sustaining the livelihoods, and with over exploitation and extraction of the natural resources the ecosystems are becoming unsustainable and fragile since last century (Kumar 2017). Standardization of cultural practices is one of the primary objectives to make the system ecologically, sustainable and economically viable (Gill et al.2009).

2.1    Ecosystem
    2.1.1 Major Components of Ecosystems
    2.1.2 Energy and Matter Flow in Ecosystems
    2.1.3 Various Types of Ecosystems
    
2.2    Biodiversity
    2.2.1 Genetic Diversity
    2.2.2 Species Diversity
    2.2.3 Ecosystem Biodiversity
    2.2.4 Values of Biodiversity
    2.2.5 Threats of Biodiversity
    2.2.6 Endangered and Endemica Species of India
    2.2.7 Biodiversity Conservation

2.1. The Physical environment
    Light
    Soil temperature
    Water dynamics

2.2. Chemical environment
    Production of phytotoxins

2.3. Biological environment
    Trophic dynamics
    Community structure
    Biodiversity

Introduction

Climate change is of great concern to India in view of food and nutritional security of its ever growing population. The impacts of climate change are global, but Indian subcontinent is more vulnerable due to dependence of its large population on agriculture. It can cause millions of deaths a year worldwide and costing more than a trillion of US dollar. Climate change has direct effect on agriculture due to 0.74°C average global increase in temperature in the last 100 years and atmospheric CO₂ concentration having increased from 280 ppm (1750) to 400 ppm (2013). These changes have direct effect on growth and multiplication/fecundity, spread and severity/infestation of many plant pathogens/insect pests, which in turn are affecting the pattern of incidence of pests (including diseases). Changing pest scenario due to climate change has warranted the need for future studies on such models which can predict the severity of important pathogens of major crops in real-field conditions. Simultaneously, pest management strategies may be reoriented to cope up with changing scenario for sustainable food production.

In contrast to the earlier and existing non-sustainable land use practices, agro forestry presents a more dynamic, productive and sustainable solution to the increasing demand of food, fodder, timber and other agricultural and tree goods. According to the United Nations,the world population was more than 7 billion in 2011 which is expected to go up to 9.3 billion by the mid-century. Consequently food production needs to be increased by over 60% by the year 2050. Agroforestry, which is a multifunctional, ecologically based, natural resource management system can help in dealing with such environmental, economic or social issues.

We are living in a world that is in a grim state of environmental disruptions. Callous developmental activities resulting in pollution of all environmental components and gradually culminating in global warming, climate change, and species extinction are responsible for triggering the processes of environmental disruption. Pollution of air, water, and soil is rapidly assuming alarming proportions.

The very processes of socioeconomic development are now posing threat to economic progress as well as to human health. Ominous changes in global climate are posing threat to life on Earth. The irony is that the major cause of environmental disruptions is anthropogenic rather than natural. Human’s materialistic progress and environmental pollution in our contemporary world go hand in hand.

3.1    Air Pollution
    3.1.1 Classification of Air Pollutants
    3.1.2  Properties of Air Pollutants
    3.1.3  Health Effects
    3.1.4 Particulate Pollution Control Equipments
    3.1.5 Gaseous Pollution Control Equipments
    
3.2    Water Pollution
    3.2.1 Causes of Pollution
    3.2.2 Origin of Wastewater
    3.2.3 Waste Water Composition
    3.2.4 Types of Water Pollutants
    3.2.5 Basic Processes of Water Treatment
    
3.3    Land
    
3.4    Marine Pollution
    3.4.1 Sources and Effects of Marine Pollution Toxics
    3.4.2 Control Measures
    
3.5    Noise
    3.5.1 Effects of Noise
    3.5.2 Major Noise Sources
    3.5.3 Noise Control Measures
    
3.6    Thermal Pollution
    3.6.1 Effects of Thermal Pollution
    
3.7     Nuclear Hazards
    3.7.1 Nuclear Weapons
    3.7.2 Types of Nuclear Bursts
    3.7.3 Nuclear Injuries
    3.7.4 Residual Radiation
    
3.8    Nuclear Waste and their Treatment
    
3.9    Solid Waste Management
    3.9.1 Role of Human in Prevention of Pollution
    
3.10    Disaster Management
    3.10.1 Floods
    3.10.2 Earthquake
    3.10.3 Cyclone
    3.10.4 Landslides

The annual milk production in Tamil Nadu during 2009-10 from crossbred cows, non-descript cows and buffaloes were 42.28,7.89 and 7.61 lakh tones, respectively. Tamil Nadu had 59.83 lakhs crossbred female cows in the year 2007 as against 41.47 lakhs in 2003 with an annual growth rate of 9.59 per cent (Anon, 2010). With the increasing crossbred cattle population and average annual production, better management of the high producers becomes a necessity. Production and health of animals depend mostly on environment in which they live. A satisfactory environment for any farm livestock is the one that ensures not only optimal productivity but also meets the health and behavioral needs of the animals. A satisfactory environment is the one that satisfies the following four criteria: thermal comfort, physical comfort, disease control and behavioral satisfaction. The most important environmental interventions done in recent days are those that have been done in housing and other attempts to ameliorate the thermal environment. The effort of the body to maintain a stable internal environment to challenges from widely variable environments was first described by Claude Bernard (1878) and later referred to as homeostasis (Cannon, 1932). An environment in which stressors are minimized would likely be favorable for efficient production of products derived from domestic farm animals and for helping ensure the well-being of those species.

Appendix-'A'    :    Standard Operating Procedure for Administration
    
Appendix-'B'    :    Standard Operating Procedure for Individuals
    
Case Study    :    Assam Floods 2004
        :    Peerchu Lake - A Disaster