Assessing Climate Impacts on Crop Water Productivity in India Using Remotely Sensed Evapotranspiration and Drought Indices

Keywords: Climate Change Impact, Crop Water Productivity, Evapotranspiration, Drought
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Climate change poses significant threats to food and water security, locally and globally. Assessing the impacts of climate change and weather extremes like drought is important in countries like India that experience high spatiotemporal variations in climate and is home to 18% of global population. This research assesses climate impacts on crop productivity in India by integrating high-resolution evapotranspiration (ET) and climate data, focusing on critical crops like rice and wheat during the monsoon (Kharif) and winter (Rabi) seasons. We used a fixed-effect panel regression model to explore associations between Crop Water Productivity (CWP) and several influential factors: Area Equipped for Irrigation (AEI), drought indices (Evaporative Stress Index [ESI] and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index [SPEI]), and Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD). The analysis, conducted at the national scale, utilizes seasonal net photosynthesis estimates from Gross Primary Production (GPP) data to generate yield maps, which are then combined with ET maps from GLEAM and Ensemble datasets to calculate CWP at a 500-meter resolution. By combining global ET/PET datasets with MSWEP precipitation data, we derive spatial drought indices for Rabi and Kharif seasons across India, enabling enhanced monitoring of seasonal water stress. This research offers a robust approach for analyzing agricultural responses to climate variability and informs the development of resilient water management practices to sustain crop productivity under changing climatic conditions.