Tropical and subtropical fruits (2+1)

Distribution of Arid & Semiarid /Dry land regions or zones

The climatological data of the arid and semi arid regions of India have been analysed by Sarkar & Baswas (1980). The entire dry farming areas have been divided into four zones. Zone –D, E, F & G.

Zone-D
This zone has the lowest crop potential. It occurs at three places.

• The first starts from the Jamnagar district of Gujarat to Ferozpur in Punjab.
• The second includes part of Ahmadnagar, Pune, Satar, Solapur and Sangli districts of Maharastra.
• The third includes portions of Bijapur, Raichur and Bellary districts of Karnataka and Karnool & Anantpur districts of Andhra Pradesh.


ZONE–E

• This area extends from Rajkot in Gujarat along with east of Zone-D up to Punjab through Rajasthan and Haryana.
• This area also extends from Ahamadnagar (Maharastra) to coastal areas of Cadappah(Andhra Pradesh) through Stara, Pune, Solapur & Sangli districts of Maharastra and Bijapur, Bellary & Tumkur districts of Karnataka.


ZONE-F

• This zone is confied to two localities in the country.
• In the north, it comprises vast areas of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and a portion of Haryana and Punjab.
• In the South, this zone stretches from the Nasik district of Maharastra to Kanyakumari of about 1/3rd land surface of world is in the grip of Arid zone and hot desserts.
• The man made desert alone covers 910m ha area.
• Tamilnadu. A large portion of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh also fall within this zone.
  


ZONE-G

• This zone has the highest crop potential.
• This area consists of small portion of UttarPradhesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat & Tamil Nadu and considerable parts of Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh.
• A part of Tamil Nadu receives the North east monsoon and the growing season, therefore differs significantly from the rest of localities.

Distribution of dry zone/Arid zone in India

• The Arid zones are characterized by sparse scattered and highly variable precipitation, extreme variation of day and night temperature and high evaporation.
• In India the arid regions occupy nearly 12 % of the land surface comprising 3,17,000 km2 (39.54 m.ha – 31.71 m. ha in hot arid and 7.83 m. ha in cold arid region) in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Karnataka & Maharastra.