Climatic Variability and Impact of Climate Change on Rice and Wheat in the Eastern Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

In this research climate variability and impact of climate change on major crop i.e. rice and wheat in the Eastern plain zone were investigated. For this study temperature (maximum & Minimum) and rainfall were collected from different sources such as India meteorological Department, Lucknow and Banaras Hindu University, Department of agronomy, Institute of agriculture science Varanasi, Yield data of crop was collected from Directorate of Economics and statistics, Ministry of agriculture. Historical data (2000-2020) on different meteorological parameters of Eastern Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh (Azamgarh, Ayodhya, Ghazipur) were analyzed. Seasonal as well as annual variability for maximum & minimum temperature, rainfall of Eastern Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh for the period of 2000-2020 were computed. From the analysis it was found that, the average temperature of Eastern Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh has been 31.6℃. The highest average temperature was 32.5℃ in the year 2009 while the lowest temperature was 30.4℃ in the year 2014. Over the year from 2000 to 2020 there has been sharp/significant increase in the temperature, which is approximately between 31.6℃ to 32.5℃. Even in the year 2009 there was an increase of approximately 0.9℃ in average temperature. Understanding trend in rainfall is one of the crucial parameters for various sectors. Furthermore average rainfall was decreasing by 0.53mm every year during 2000-2020.