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<p>Rainfall variability, particularly its intra-seasonal distribution, is vital for understanding crop water availability and irrigation needs in semi-arid cropping systems. While total seasonal rainfall is used to assess water sufficiency, but uneven rainfall can lead to significant soil moisture deficit during key growth stages of crops. This study takes a deep dive into long-term rainfall patterns from 1984 to 2019, examining how these fluctuations affect irrigation needs and groundwater usage in paddy-wheat cropping systems across three different agroclimatic zones (sub-humid, semi-arid, and arid regions) of Indian Punjab. Results showed a significant differences in both the amount and distribution of rainfall. Throughout the paddy growing season, every year faced 3–5 dry spells lasting over 10&#xa0;days with few stretches even exceeding a month. In the sub-humid area of Indian Punjab, monsoon rainfall peaked during 2013 at 884&#xa0;mm and during 2018 at 2014&#xa0;mm compared with 674&#xa0;mm during 2016. Interestingly, the year 2016 had a well-distributed rainfall pattern with no dry spells of 10&#xa0;days or more, whereas the years 2013 and 2018 each had 2–3 dry spells of that length necessitating at least five irrigations of 250&#xa0;mm of water during those times. In the semi-arid region, the year 2012 was considered a good monsoon year meteorologically, but it faced agricultural drought conditions from June 1 to July 21, 2012 which coincided with the peak atmospheric demand and paddy water needs. The monsoon brought 696&#xa0;mm of rain during 2013 and 843&#xa0;mm during 2018, yet both the years still experienced 2 to 3 dry spells during the monsoon. Similarly, during the wheat growing season, 1–3 dry spells of &gt; 30&#xa0;days were observed in all the regions even during good rainfall years. These dry spells increased the need for irrigation particularly during critical growth stages of crops. The irrigation needs for both paddy and wheat were found to be positively related with crop evapotranspiration and negatively correlated with effective rainfall, aridity index, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. Depth to water level have been on a steady decline from 2010 to 2019 in all the regions of Punjab. Paddy and wheat yield was positively correlated with groundwater usage. These results suggest that distribution of rainfall in a season than the total amount of rainfall plays a crucial role in driving irrigation needs of crops and the change in depth to water level.</p>

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Beyond rainfall totals: impacts of rainfall distribution on crop water requirements and groundwater withdrawals in paddy–wheat cropping systems of Northwest India

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月9日

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  • P. K. Kingra,
  • Raj Setia,
  • Som Pal Singh,
  • Sumit Kumar

摘要

Rainfall variability, particularly its intra-seasonal distribution, is vital for understanding crop water availability and irrigation needs in semi-arid cropping systems. While total seasonal rainfall is used to assess water sufficiency, but uneven rainfall can lead to significant soil moisture deficit during key growth stages of crops. This study takes a deep dive into long-term rainfall patterns from 1984 to 2019, examining how these fluctuations affect irrigation needs and groundwater usage in paddy-wheat cropping systems across three different agroclimatic zones (sub-humid, semi-arid, and arid regions) of Indian Punjab. Results showed a significant differences in both the amount and distribution of rainfall. Throughout the paddy growing season, every year faced 3–5 dry spells lasting over 10 days with few stretches even exceeding a month. In the sub-humid area of Indian Punjab, monsoon rainfall peaked during 2013 at 884 mm and during 2018 at 2014 mm compared with 674 mm during 2016. Interestingly, the year 2016 had a well-distributed rainfall pattern with no dry spells of 10 days or more, whereas the years 2013 and 2018 each had 2–3 dry spells of that length necessitating at least five irrigations of 250 mm of water during those times. In the semi-arid region, the year 2012 was considered a good monsoon year meteorologically, but it faced agricultural drought conditions from June 1 to July 21, 2012 which coincided with the peak atmospheric demand and paddy water needs. The monsoon brought 696 mm of rain during 2013 and 843 mm during 2018, yet both the years still experienced 2 to 3 dry spells during the monsoon. Similarly, during the wheat growing season, 1–3 dry spells of > 30 days were observed in all the regions even during good rainfall years. These dry spells increased the need for irrigation particularly during critical growth stages of crops. The irrigation needs for both paddy and wheat were found to be positively related with crop evapotranspiration and negatively correlated with effective rainfall, aridity index, and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. Depth to water level have been on a steady decline from 2010 to 2019 in all the regions of Punjab. Paddy and wheat yield was positively correlated with groundwater usage. These results suggest that distribution of rainfall in a season than the total amount of rainfall plays a crucial role in driving irrigation needs of crops and the change in depth to water level.