IMPACT MITIGATION STRATEGY ON CLIMATE CHANGE, WATER SUPPLY AND FRUIT PRODUCTIVITY IN INDIA

摘要

Climate change affects water supply depending upon variations in weather parameters.Accordingly, the crop productivities also vary. As water supply is inelastic, declining cropproductivity is attributed to lack of sound water management practices. Finding a balancebetween inelastic supply and elastic demand from users in water resource projects in generaland irrigation projects in particular may lead to higher irrigation development index. Theeconomic planning of water, therefore, has been considered in this research paper to meet theobjectives of extent of variability in water supply, crops’ productivity and interactions amongweather parameters and crops’ productivity and working out strategic points. Appropriateeconomic, statistical and environmental tools have been used on time series data for two anda half decade (1988-2013) on weather parameters and apple productivity in temperate zoneof Himachal Pradesh – India. Results have revealed ‘eco warming’ due to +25% variation inmean maximum temperature during the study period which has affected apple productivity.Changes in other weather parameters like rains or snow have made water supply irregular.Interactions among weather parameters and apple productivity have lead to strategic pointsso as to best adapt the climate change. The strategies include: (i) mapping of potential pointsfor surface and ground water availability near inhabited areas, (ii) planning of conservationand distribution channels within the budget constraints in a phased manner based on supplyof and demand for water, (iii) establishing water-vegetation relationship throughout thecommand area, and (iv) multi-objective planning due to multiple uses of water in infrastructuredevelopment; which have been found effective to enhance the weighted total irrigationdevelopment index (presently TIDIW = 0.44).