The deficiency and uneven distribution of rainfall during the 2009 monsoon has brought several issues to the fore: rising water demand from various sectors, regional effects of a drought and the failure of the India Meteorological Department to provide credible forecasts at the disaggregate level. A multi-pronged strategy to permanently deal with monsoon deficiency requires exploring newer drou...

Agriculture is a sector easily affected by meteorological conditions. Crop yield reduction, even regional conflicts, may occur during a drought. It is extremely important to improve the state of our knowledge on agricultural drought risk. This study has proposed a new method (vulnerability surfaces) for assessing vulnerability quantitatively and continuously by including the environmental varia...

Histone acetylation is one of the vital reversible modifications of chromatin structure that regulates gene expression in eukaryotes. Histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and histone deacetylases (HDACs) maintain the homeostasis of histone acetylation. Studies in Arabidopsis have revealed that HATs are involved in plant responses to various stresses including light, temperature, salt and ABA. Drou...

Lack of access to insurance exacerbates the impact of climate variability on smallholder famers in Africa. Unlike traditional insurance, which compensates proven agricultural losses, weather index insurance (WII) pays out in the event that a weather index is breached. In principle, WII could be provided to farmers throughout Africa. There are two data-related hurdles to this. First, most farmer...

Meteorological droughts occur when there is deficiency in rainfall; i.e. rainfall availability below some acclaimed normal values. Hence, the greater challenge to be able obtain suitable methods for assessing drought occurrence, its onset or initiation and termination. Thus, an attempt was made this paper evaluate performance of Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) Anomaly (SPAI) characterise...

introduction drought is a climatic hazard that occurs in the vast areas throughout the world. it causes physical suffering, economic losses, and environmental instability. drought is a slowly developing very which is phenomenon, and it is very difficult to determine when a dry spell becomes a drought or when a severe drought becomes an exceptional drought. it is usually starting with less drama...