A Study In Water Balance And Climatic Characteristics Of Drought – Prone Areas In Jalgaon District Of Maharashtra State

Knowledge of the water balance is the basis for the development of agricultural production, crop selection, and determination of cropping pattern (Oldeman and Frere, 1982 in Sujalu, 2000). Water balance is defined as ‘the net change in water, taking into account all the inflows to and outflows from a hydrologic system’. Rainfall is the main source of water supply on the earth surface and it determines the moisture level at various depths of soil available to crops. The availability of moisture in soil is a controlling factor for growth and development of all types of vegetation especially for exiting crops in an area. Day to day human activities are normally governed by the prevailing climatic conditions of human beings like deforestations, farming practices, industrialization, rapid urbanization etc. The location and physiographic factors also combined influence the climatic characteristics of a region. In the same way climate helps to define climate vegetation of a region and also sets limits for crop growth. In this context, the numerical estimate of climatic water balance and its study has obtained an important place in geography. In the present study an attempt has been made to describe the climatic characteristics of the study region and to evaluate the water balance parameters for the study region according to the revised scheme of Thornthwaite and Mather (1955).The study shows that the entire Kharip season is deficit free and during Rabi season the deficit amount is 643.9 mm. There is water surplus from July to October and water deficit from November to May. Though on an average the study region is under deficit (1072.2 mm), the agro climatic situation of the region is arid (MI = -59.2 %).