Agricultural Drought Mitigation Research Articles

Global insights, local applications: irrigation technologies and agricultural drought mitigation in the canadian prairies

The Canadian Prairies face significant water scarcity challenges despite the country's abundant freshwater resources. This scarcity, driven by limited water availability and increasing agricultural demands, makes the region vulnerable to drought. As a major agricultural hub, droughts have led to economic losses and reduced crop productivity. This scoping review examines global drought response measures, focusing on irrigation technologies adaptable for Western Canada. Case studies from Australia, China, and the United States highlight advances in water use efficiency and irrigation technologies, including drip and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), center-pivot irrigation (CPI), and drought-resistant crop varieties. Examples include Australia's prioritization of essential crops and improved irrigation infrastructure, China's adoption of water-saving rice varieties, and California's use of SDI for water conservation. Adopting these established irrigation techniques could enhance water use efficiency, support food security, and contribute to sustainable water management in the Canadian Prairies. This review underscores the value of integrating global practices to strengthen agricultural resilience in the region.

Construction of an Agricultural Drought Monitoring Model for Karst with Coupled Climate and Substratum Factors—A Case Study of Guizhou Province, China

Droughts are becoming more frequent in the karst region of southwest China due to climate change, and accurate monitoring of karst agricultural droughts is crucial. To this end, in this study, based on random forest (RF) and support vector regression (SVR) algorithms, the monthly precipitation, monthly potential evapotranspiration, monthly normalised difference vegetation Index (NDVI), elevation, and karst development intensity from January to December 2001–2020 were used as independent variables, and the standardised soil moisture index (SSI) calculated by GLDAS soil moisture was used as the dependent variable to construct karst agricultural drought monitoring models at different timescales, using Guizhou Province as an example. The performance of the models constructed by the two algorithms was also evaluated using root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2), and correlation analysis, and the spatial and temporal evolution trends of karst agricultural drought at different timescales were analysed based on the model with better performance. The prediction of karst agricultural drought from January to December 2021–2025 was based on the seasonal difference autoregressive moving average (SARIMA) model and the analysis of change trends was performed using the Bayesian estimator of abrupt change, seasonal change, and trend (RBEAST). The results showed that (1) the drought model constructed by the RF regression algorithm performed better than the SVR algorithm at 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month timescales and was superior for monitoring karst agricultural drought. (2) The model showed that the overall trend of agricultural drought at different timescales was alleviated; 2010, 2011, and 2012 were typical drought years. At the same time, most regions showed a trend of drought mitigation, whereas a few regions (Bijie City, Liupanshui City, and Qianxinan Prefecture) showed a trend of aggravation. (3) The study predicted an overall high west–east distribution of drought intensity by 2021–2025. The 1- and 3-month timescales showed a trend of agricultural drought mitigation, and the 6-, 9-, and 12-month timescales showed a trend of aggravation; in 2021, 2022, and 2024, the abrupt change rates of autumn and winter droughts were higher. The results can provide a reference basis for the monitoring of agricultural drought in karst agriculture and the formulation of drought prevention and anti-drought measures.

The Evolution of Irrigation Effects on Agricultural Drought Mitigation in North China

Drought is one of the most common natural threats to agricultural production worldwide. Few studies have studied the effects of agricultural practices on drought mitigation at a regional scale over a long period. This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics in the agricultural drought-affected area change index (ADAC), which was developed to assess the drought mitigation. The linear regression method was used to investigate the impact factors on the change of ADAC in the three main winter wheat provinces of northern China. The results showed that the average ADAC during the main growing season in the study area was approximately −61.5% over the past 38 years, which indicated a great decrease of the agricultural drought-affected area. The significant decreasing trends of ADAC values across the study area during 1981–2000 could be explained by the area percentage equipped for irrigation (APEI) by 49.2–89.7%. There was a lack of pronounced change trends of ADAC during 2001–2018, implying that the positive effects of irrigation infrastructure in the plain area might reach a plateau under the constraints of available water resources, and other agricultural practices need to be investigated in the future. This research provides helpful decision information on drought adaptation management and water conservation project planning.

Effect of natural factors and management practices on agricultural water use efficiency under drought: A meta-analysis of global drylands

Agriculture’s need to feed the growing population is challenged by the decline in available water resources especially in the context of global climate change. Improving crop water use efficiency (WUE) will help to safeguard the environmental sustainability of food production in dryland areas. However, the impact of drought on crop WUE varies—a comprehensive and quantitative understanding of relevant factors is needed to support evidence-based management decisions. Here, we used a meta-analysis of global drylands (81 studies with 836 paired observations) to evaluate the response of various crop WUEs to drought based on various natural and human induced factors. Our results showed that responses of crop types’ WUE varied under drought intensity, which probably a reference for crop selection in drylands. Cotton could be one of crop selection reference in hyper-arid or arid regions, and legume is not recommended for drylands without irrigation. Cereal crop are suitable for growing in semi-arid or dry sub-humid areas. Moreover, soil improvement and fertilizer management are the effective methods to alleviate drought stress, in addition to irrigation. Soil with medium-texture, 1.3–1.4 g cm−3 bulk density and 15–20 g kg−1 organic matter is beneficial for improving WUE under drought. Fertilizer should be carefully considered and not exceed 200 kg ha−1 for wheat in drylands. Water deficit can improve crop WUE, but should not exceed 40% of the full irrigation amount. Field management practices, such as mulching and weed control, can help alleviate drought by regulating WUE to some extent. This study evaluated the responses of various crop WUEs to drought and highlighted the factors contributing to and/or decreasing crop WUE from natural factor and management practices, which provides a basis for agricultural drought mitigation strategies under future climate change in dryland areas.

Agricultural drought risk assessment of Northern New South Wales, Australia using geospatial techniques

Droughts are recurring events in Australia and cause a severe effect on agricultural and water resources. However, the studies about agricultural drought risk mapping are very limited in Australia. Therefore, a comprehensive agricultural drought risk assessment approach that incorporates all the risk components with their influencing criteria is essential to generate detailed drought risk information for operational drought management. A comprehensive agricultural drought risk assessment approach was prepared in this work incorporating all components of risk (hazard, vulnerability, exposure, and mitigation capacity) with their relevant criteria using geospatial techniques. The prepared approach is then applied to identify the spatial pattern of agricultural drought risk for Northern New South Wales region of Australia. A total of 16 relevant criteria under each risk component were considered, and fuzzy logic aided geospatial techniques were used to prepare vulnerability, exposure, hazard, and mitigation capacity indices. These indices were then incorporated to quantify agricultural drought risk comprehensively in the study area. The outputs depicted that about 19.2% and 41.7% areas are under very-high and moderate to high risk to agricultural droughts, respectively. The efficiency of the results is successfully evaluated using a drought inventory map. The generated spatial drought risk information produced by this study can assist relevant authorities in formulating proactive agricultural drought mitigation strategies.

Agricultural drought mitigating indices derived from the changes in drought characteristics

Droughts can cause tremendous losses to agricultural and economic development; humans have explored many anti-drought measures to mitigate the influence of drought and accordingly altering the characteristics of actual agricultural drought. In this study, a method is proposed to detect the spatiotemporal changes in drought characteristics, which show the effects of anti-drought measures on drought mitigation. Two agricultural drought mitigation evaluation indices are proposed, the agricultural drought frequency change (ADFC) and agricultural drought area change (ADAC), which are calculated by combining the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) and vegetation health index (VHI), two widely used drought monitoring indices. The PDSI and VHI represent the natural and actual agricultural drought severity under natural and actual conditions respectively, and their differences in drought frequency and affected area reflect the level of anti-drought measures in mitigating agricultural drought. The feasibility of using ADFC and ADAC to quantify the effects of anti-drought measures for agriculture is explored using data from six typical agricultural provinces in the North China Plain and Northeast China. The results show that ADFC and ADAC could reflect both the spatiotemporal changes in agricultural drought characteristics and the influence of anti-drought measures on agricultural drought. The trend of the drought mitigation index is consistent with agricultural activity statistics. These two indices could be further used to evaluate the effects of different anti-drought methods and aid in defeating agricultural drought across many countries.

Drought risk assessment of spring maize based on APSIM crop model in Liaoning province, China

Drought risk assessment is a vital part of drought risk management, which plays an important role in drought mitigation. Due to its complexity, drought risk is difficult to define and challenging to quantitatively assess, as the drought impacts associate with many social sectors. This contribution method the issue by quantitatively evaluating the yield loss due to drought as a function of the drought severity indicator in Liaoning province, China for spring maize using logarithmic regression. As crop water deficit is essence to identify agricultural drought, it developed a drought severity indicator using the crop water stress coefficient and duration. The Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) crop model was employed to simulate the spring maize growth to obtain daily water deficit during the growth period (May to September) and yield. The relationship between drought severity frequency and yield loss rate due to drought was established to assess the drought risk of spring maize when drought severity frequency is equal to 20%, 10%, 5% and 2%. The results show that Chaoyang and Fuxin have the highest drought risk in four levels of drought severity frequency whilst the lowest drought risk was identified in Tieling. The central Liaoning province has a moderate drought risk. For a specific drought severity frequency, drought risk increases from east to west in Liaoning province whilst it varies in each city at different drought severities. This method can predict yield loss due to drought for drought early warning. Drought risk maps presents spatial characteristics that can help to agricultural drought mitigation and the development of drought preparedness plan in Liaoning province.

Feasibility and sizing of unlined on-farm pond for partial rice substitution in rainfed uplands of eastern India

Rice (Oryza sativa L.)-dominated rainfed uplands of eastern India are facing two major problems such as lack of irrigation water sources and low productivity. In fact, unlined on-farm pond (OFP) technology in this terrain could prove to be an effective agricultural drought mitigation measure for monsoon crops but failed to ensure supplemental irrigation (SI) to the next winter crops. Consequently, the OFP technology could not pick up in the region. In order to overcome the shortcomings in the technology, the location of the OFP has been changed and a new concept of partial rice substitution (PRS) has been introduced in the present study to provide SI for the second crop in winter. Maize (Zea mays L.) and rice crops at upper and lower compartments of the field, respectively, were tried at various crop substitution ratios (CSR) of 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, and 30:70 during monsoon season. Rainfall excess from both the compartments was harvested in an unlined OFP located in between the compartments and used for providing SI. In winter, black gram (Vigna mungo L.) and mustard (Brassica campestris) were taken in the upper and lower compartments, respectively, based on availability of water in the OFP. Water balance models were used to simulate the soil moisture in crop root zone as well as storage of water in the OFP. The optimal size of such unlined OFP for average land holdings (1200 m2) in rainfed uplands and under 60:40 CSR was found to be occupying 6 % area of the crop field.

농업가뭄대응을 위한 가뭄기상시나리오 모델 개발 및 적용

Different from other natural hazards including floods, drought advances slowly and spreads widely, so that the preparedness is quite important and effective to mitigate the impacts from drought. Evaluation and forecast the status of drought for the present and future utilizing the meteorological scenario for agricultural drought can be useful to set a plan for agricultural drought mitigation in agriculture water resource management. In this study, drought climate scenario model on the basis of historical drought records for preparing agricultural drought mitigation was developed. To consider dependency and correlation between various climate variables, this model was utilized the historical climate pattern using reference year setting of four drought levels. The reference year for drought level was determined based on the frequency analysis result of monthly effective rainfall. On the basis of this model, drought climate scenarios at Suwon and Icheon station were set up and these scenarios were applied on the water balance simulation of reservoir water storage for Madun reservoir as well as the soil moisture model for Gosam reservoir watershed. The results showed that drought climate scenarios in this study could be more useful for long-term forecast of longer than 2~3 months period rather than short-term forecast of below one month.

Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: impacts and mitigation

Impacts of Natural Disasters in Agriculture, Rangeland and Forestry: an Overview.- The Role of Disaster Preparedness in National Planning with Specific Reference to Droughts.- The Occurrence and Predictability of Extreme Events over the Southwest Pacific with Particular Reference to ENSO.- Accessibility of Database Information to Facilitate Early Detection of Extreme Events to Help Mitigate Their Impacts on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.- Tools for Forecasting or Warning as well as Hazard Assessment to Reduce Impact of Natural Disasters on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.- Agrometeorological Impact Assessment of Natural Disasters and Extreme Events and Agricultural Strategies Adopted in Areas with High Weather Risks.- Damage Assessment of Agrometeorological Relevance from Natural Disasters: Economic and Social Consequences.- Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Chinese Lowland Agriculture and Coastal Fisheries.- Frost and High Temperature Injury in China.- Impacts of Sand Storms/Dust Storms on Agriculture.- Disaster Reduction Planning and Response: The Example of National Drought Policy in USA.- Agricultural Drought Policy and Practices in Australia.- Significance of Training, Education and Communication for Awareness of Potential Hazards in Managing Natural Disaster in Australia.- Agrometeorological Disaster Risk Management in China.- Degradation of Vegetation and Agricultural Productivity due to Natural Disasters and Land Use Strategies to Mitigate Their Impacts on Agriculture, Rangelands and Forestry.- Agricultural Drought Mitigation and Management of Sustained Agricultural Development in India.- Early Detection and Monitoring of Drought and Flood in China Using Remote Sensing and GIS.- The Decision of the Center of a Tropical Cyclone over China Coastal Waters Using a Doppler Radar.- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS for Analysis of Forest Fire Risk and Assessment of Forest Degradation.- Conclusions and Recommendations.