Climate Change and Agriculture in Rajasthan: Present Perspective and Future Strategies

The climate is a very important factor which determines the type of agriculture to be practiced in a given area. A small change in any of the factors of climate can result in huge fluctuations in production of agriculture. In arid and semi-arid regions, the agriculture is mainly dependent on rain, and therefore, the vulnerability of agriculture in such regions increases with changing climate patterns. The climate of Rajasthan in general varies from arid in the western part to Sub-humid in eastern and southern part. Rajasthan being the 10th largest agriculture producer among the states of India is heavily dependent on agriculture. In recent times, due to adoption of new technologies the productivity of agriculture has increased manifolds in some parts of the state, but due to climate being not much favorable the agriculture remains at risk due to climatic fluctuations. Therefore, in order to stabilize the growth of agriculture in the state and identify the most agriculturally vulnerable regions, it is necessary to have knowledge about the prevailing climatic variability in Rajasthan. In this context the present study tries to measure the fluctuations of temperature and variability of in different agro-climatic zones of Rajasthan during 1990–2019. The study found that the temperature of the state as a unit is increasing and at the same time variability of rainfall is also increasing. There is gradual expansion of arid climate over semi arid zones of the state. The productivity, crop efficiency, crop combination and crop diversification are also changing as the climate is being changed.