Agricultural drought is common occurrence in most semi-arid places including Eastern FreeState and this hazard has detrimental effects on crop production. In the study 12 weatherstations in the region were selected based on the length of record of the climate data (> 20years). The Water Requirement Satisfaction Index (WRSI) was utilized to quantify the droughtin this study. The index was determined for different crop growing periods of a 120-day maizecrop per agricultural season. Median values were then mapped to assess the evolution ofdrought according to different planting period. In most parts of the Eastern Free State, WRSIvalues in most of the growing periods ranged from 61 to 80. These indicate maize crop wassubjected to mild drought conditions over the growing periods. The results also show lowtemporal and spatial variability.
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