260WEATHER BASED AGROADVISORIES mean sea level and annual rainfall ranging from 679 mm to 889 mm. It comprises of four districts viz., Bangalore urban, Bangalore rural, Kolar and parts of Tumkur district representing 9.1 per cent of the total cropped area of the State (Karnataka at glance 2002-03). The main crops are Finger millet, rice, red gram, groundnut, short duration pulses, and horticultural fruit crops and off season vegetables with protective irrigation. In addition, poultry, dairy and mulberry cultivations and sericulture are important agricultural activities in the region. The southwest (SW) monsoon season is more important for crop production in this region and it was highly helpful to the small and marginal farmers.
Forecasting models were developed using twenty five years (1985-2009) of weather and yield data of ragi and groundnut of different districts of Karnataka State Models were validated for the years 2010 and 2011. Good agreements have been realized between the estimated and the observed yields for both ragi and groundnut crops with the similar trend of deviation at preharvest stage. The deviations of predicted yield were with in 10%. Hence, these models can be used for predicting ragi and groundnut yields of different districts of Karnataka.
Water transpired by Jack grown under irrigated and rainfed situations at the University of Agticultura1 Sciences (UAS), Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra (GKVK), Bangalore during the year 1993 has been studied. Irrigated trees transpired 1054.3 mm of water and trees grown under rainfed condition transpired 701.3 mm of water during the period of observation. Two main growth flushes were observed, viz., March last week to May first week and June third week to August first week. In all the trees the first growth flush was observed during the dryspell. The maturity of the fruit got delayed by 20-30 days in the case of irrigated trees.
Karnataka state is having the second largest rainfed agricultural area in the Country and food production is mainly depending on the south-west monsoon. The State’s mean annual rainfall is found to be in decreasing trend along with its sixteen years cyclic periodicity. The State first half century’s (1901-1950) normal of 1204 mm has been reduced to 1140 mm during second half of the century (1951-2000). Nevertheless, few districts like Bengaluru, Kolar and Tumkur are gaining in their mean annual rainfall and some traditionally heavy rainfall receiving districts like Kodagu, Chikmagalur and South Canara are loosing in their mean annual rainfall. The eastern districts of the state are tending to be more dependent on North East monsoon than terminal rains of the South West monsoon. Consequently individual crop growing area, growing period are changing. The normal sowing season rains are being delayed due to the shift of July rains to the August month and September peak rainfall is being shifted to October month. The maximum water available period for the grand growth period is shifting towards the end of September and beginning of October in many districts. Finger millet crop area (main food crop of southern Karnataka) in Chikmagalur district, Groundnut area in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts, Red gram in Bidar and Gulbarga districts is increasing. Where as, Groundnut area in Belgaum and Gulbarga districts and Red gram area in Belgam and Tumkur is decreasing.
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