In this paper we explore the potential for a new approach to managing drought risk among rainfed rice producers in Odisha, India. Droughts have historically been a serious constraint to agricultural production in rainfed agricultural systems, with droughts resulting in significant reductions in both yields and cultivated area, in turn leading to significant impacts on rural livelihoods and food security. Scientists and policy makers have proposed various strategies for managing risks, with limited success. In this study we consider two such strategies, specifically drought-tolerant rice and weather index insurance. While neither drought-tolerant cultivars nor weather index insurance products are perfect solutions for adequately managing drought risk in and of themselves, there is scope to exploit the benefits of each and bundle them into a complementary risk management product, specifically through proper index calibration and an optimized insurance design. In this study, we explore preferences for such a complementary risk management product using discrete choice experiments in Odisha, India. We are able to estimate the added value that farmers perceive in the bundled product above and beyond the value associated with each of the independent products. We also show that valuations are sensitive to the basis risk implied by the insurance product, with farmers less enthusiastic about risk management products that leave significant risks uninsured.

This book, which contains 14 chapters, covers all aspects of rainfed agriculture, starting with its potential, current status, rainwater harvesting and supplementary irrigation, to policies, approaches, institutions for upscaling, and impacts of integrated water management programmes in rainfed areas.

The study examines the global pattern and impacts of droughts through mapping several drought-related characteristics - either at a country level or at regular grid scales. It appears that arid and semi-arid areas also tend to have a higher probability of drought occurrence. It is illustrated that the African continent is lagging behind the rest of the world on many indicators related to drought-preparedness and that agricultural economies, overall, are much more vulnerable to adverse societal impacts of meteorological droughts. The study also examines the ability of various countries to satisfy their water needs during droughts using storage-related indices.

This Food Policy Report presents research results that quantify the climate-change impacts mentioned above, assesses the consequences for food security, and estimates the investments that would offset the negative consequences for human well-being.

Frequent drought events have recently occurred in different Mediterranean regions. These have highlighted a general inadequacy of the current strategies applied to mitigate negative impacts of such phenomenon. This book provides various methods of drought monitoring at different spatial scales, as well as innovative drought forecasting techniques based on stochastic approaches. Besides common drought indices (i.e. SPI), new agrometeorological indices are proposed.