Simulating the Effect of the Climate Change, Genotypes and Management on the Productivity of Forage Cowpea in Semi-Arid Regions of India

Climate variability and change due to increase in green house gases concentration and the resultant increase in temperature has led to notable changes in different sectors including water and agriculture which would impact food security (Rai et al., 2014) in many regions of the developing world, which are largely dependent on rainfed and labor intensive agricultural production (Ziervogel and Calder, 2003). Eco-physiological models are widely used especially the potential impacts of climate change (Gitay et al., 2001; White et al., 2011). The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is an annual herbaceous legume cultivated for its edible seeds or for fodder. It is an obvious choice for intercropping with forage cereals like sorghum, maize and pearl millet in all growing region of India. The fresh fodder has 15-20 % CP content and being legume it fixes nitrogen in the soil which makes more suitable for rainfed marginal lands. In this context, CROPGRO- model calibrated and validated for forage cowpea and this was employed for assessing the impact of climate change as well as analyzing the climatic risk of forage cow pea production

Rainfall variability and probability for crop planning at Madhepura in Bihar

Daily rainfall data of thirty years (1974-2004) have been analyzed for establishing the long term averages of weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall and its variability. July receives maximum rainfall of 386.5 mm followed by August (330.6 mm). The stable rainfall period was of 13 weeks spread over 25 to 37th standard meteorological weeks (SMW). The probability of receiving 10 and 20 mm of average weekly rainfall during 25 to 39th SMW exceeds 70%. At 75% probability level rainfall of 45.8 mm can be expected to occur during the month of May that can be utilized for summer ploughing or seedbed preparation for raising rice seedlings; maize sowing may be advanced to last week of April to first week of May. Sowing of jute and other crops (cowpea, groundnut, pigeon pea, black gram, direct sown rice etc) could also be performed in this region

Thermal Indices of Fodder Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) Cultivars in Bundelkhand Region of Central India

The present study was conducted to identify the impact of temperature indices on different phenophases and yield of cowpea varieties growing in Jhansi region of Uttar Pradesh, India. The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) is a warm season legume crop grown in arid and semi-arid regions of India. Traditionally, it is very important as a staple food and source of fodder for the African continent, India and other semi-arid regions. A field experiment was conducted during rainyseasons (July to October) of 2010 and 2011 to determine the thermal indices for fodder cowpea varieties at Central Research Farm, ICAR-IGFRI, Jhansi. All the data were subjected to ANOVA using PROC GLM procedure in SAS (v 9.3). In ANOVA, varieties, date of sowing and year effect is considered as fixed factors and replication as random factor. Crop sown on 12th July took higher accumulated growing degree days (GDD) during 50% flowering (1111°C days) and maturity (2074°C days) as compared to crop sown during 4th August. Green fodder yield of Kohinoor recorded highest heat use efficiency (HUE) (32.4 kg ha-1°C day-1) over BL-2 and EC-4216 at the time of 50% flowering while it is at par with BL-1. From the results, it is found that early sownfodder cowpea recorded maximum duration, heat unit and heat use efficiency at maturity. The Variety Kohinoor recorded the highest grain yield, lowest calendar days and highest HUE as compared to all other varieties

Detection of annual and seasonal temperature variability and change using non-parametric test- A case study of Bundelkhand region of central India

Consequences of global warming and climate change are major threat to humans and their socio-economic activities. Agriculture of Bundelkhand region is supposed to be more vulnerable due to emerging scenario of climate change and poor socio-economic status of farming community. Many studies carried out elsewhere have shown evidence of regional temperature variability along with global climate changes. This study focuses on the temporal variability and trend in annual and seasonal temperature (1901-2012) at six locations of Bundelkhand region. The results of the analysis reveal that the annual maximum (TMax) and minimum (TMin) temperature has significantly increasing trend in all the locations in the range of 0.5 to 2.0oC 100 year-1 and 0.5 to 1.1 oC 100 year-1, respectively. Seasonal analysis revealed warming trend in both TMax (0.6-2.6oC100 year-1) and TMin (0.9 to 2.3 oC 100 year-1) during post-monsoon and winter season in all the locations. Majority of the locations showed cooling trend (0.3-1.0 oC 100 year-1), in the mean maximum and minimum temperature during monsoon season except at two locations i.e Jhansi and Banda. However, a significant positive trends (2.9 oC) in the TMin was found for the period of hundred years at Banda district during monsoon season

Long term trends in rainfall and its probability for crop planning in two districts of Bundelkhand region

Annual and weekly rainfall data for the period of 69 years (1942-2008) of Datia and (1939-2007) of Jalaun districts of Bundelkhand region were analyzed. The overall mean annual rainfall was 778.8 mm with 27.3% variability for Jalaun and 831.8 mm with 30.3 % variability for Datia region. Mann-Kendall rank statistics and Gaussian low pass filter revealed the long-term a decreasing trend in total amount of annual rainfall at Jalaun. However, in past 13 years (1996 to 2008), both regions exhibited significant decreasing trend in total amount of annual rainfall. At Datia, the probability more than 10 mm during 26th (25 June-1 July) and 27th (2-7, July) standard meteorological week (SMW) suggested to initiate field preparation operation for Kharif crop and sowing in subsequent week due to assured probability (70%) of more than 20 mm rainfall. The 27th and 28th (8-15, July) SMW is also an ideal time for the crop fertilization. Overall expected rainfall for getting more than 20 mm rainfall at 60% probability level is for 10 weeks at Datia suggesting that short duration varieties of various crops can be ideal in the region. At Jalaun, the trend analysis showed that field operation may be a week delay than Datia due to late onset on monsoon. Therefore, the ideal combination of crops of the regions may be sorghum for the grain purpose intercropped with cowpea for the fodder purpose as livestock is an integral part of rainfed rural economy