Trend and variability of rainfall in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra Bhagat AA1, Bhoge RS2,*, Jadhav DS3 1Zonal Agricultural Research Station (MPKV), Ganeshkhind, Pune-411067, Maharashtra, India 2Seed Technology Research Unit, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri-413722, Maharashtra, India 3Yashvantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara-415001, Maharashtra, India *Email forcorrespondence: stataab@gmail.com
Online published on 6 December, 2021. Abstract Rainfall is the most important weather factor that determines the agricultural production in India. The rainfall variability and its pattern are very important for agricultural production. The prevailing drought conditions have led to sharp decline in agricultural production in Maharashtra. The economic survey report indicated that the deficient rainfall in the year 2018 has resulted in sharp fall in the production of kharif crops viz jowar, bajara, tur, groundnut, sesamum and sunflower. Due to large amount of variability in rainfall, the farmers have been facing major problem of getting remunerative yield of crops. The climate of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra is generally dry except monsoon season. The non-parametric Mann-Kendall rank test was applied to detect monotonic trends in series of rainfall in the district. It was observed that the mean annual rainfall in the district showed a long term insignificant declining trend during the study period of last 28 years except pre-monsoon season. The average rainfall and variability were 676.3 mm and 30.40 per cent respectively in the district during the study period. Top Keywords Rainfall, Variability, Trend, Agricultural production. Top |