Handling drought by the government

I have never been close to agriculture. So, the news of bad monsoon was slow to seep in. There were multiple voices. Some say that the effect is going to be severe as 60% of population depends on agricultural earning and kharif crop constitutes 52% of the total crop. Others say that the rural income has become less dependent on agriculture with the sucess of programs like National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (NREGA), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), National Food Security Mission (NFSM), National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD), Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) & other. However, what impressed me was the 73 page draft prepared by National Rainfed Area Authority (http://agricoop.nic.in/NRAA_DMS.pdf)
Some of the wow facts are mentioned below:
- The soutwest or summer monsoon accounts for 70-80% of rainfall while the rest comes northeast or winter monsoon
- In 44 years from 1965-2009, Orissa witnessed 19 years of drought, 17 years of floods and 7 years of cyclones
- Over hundred years from 1871 to 1988, 11 of the 21 dorught years were El Nino years
- Care for food, water and fodder are three most important thing
- Non participation of local communities was a major issue to alleviate pain they underwent during past droughts. This year this should be less because of focus of government on inclusive growth
- Four regions - North, East, West and Central have reservoirs lesser than 10 year average. Only South has greater than 10 year average primarily because Karnataka has higher levels due to higher rainfalls
- MP reservoirs have 160% and Tamil Nadu has 120% of the 10 year average
- Drinking water should be the first priority and then irrigation
- Canal irrigation generally based on reservoirs like Tehri dam has many possibilities and
flexibilities to adjust or adapt with the rainfall pattern and deficiency
- Some of the irrigation schemes especially of UP, Bihar, etc. are based on run-off of the
rivers or barrage based systems and have limited scope of adaptations to drought
- Rain water is the best source for crops. In some areas, there are increased concentration of salts in ground water which is bad for crops
- There is a central planning for the fodder to be made available across the country
- The non-kharif, Boro rice will be grown in winter as it can grow with less water
- Incase of delayed monsoon, pulses can be planted upto first week of september
- Advice on planting sesame oil seed as it can provide more output per hectare
- Sowing of castor can be in rain deficeit regions
- Alternative irrigation methods may be used to grow highly water dependent cotton crop