📈 Contingency Crop Planning

Contingency crop planning ensures pre-approved crop and management alternatives are ready before season disruptions caused by delayed monsoon or prolonged dry spells.

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What Is Contingency Crop Planning?

Contingency crop planning is the practice of preparing pre-designed alternative crop and variety plans to be implemented when the normal agricultural season fails or is severely disrupted by aberrant weather. Rather than responding reactively after crop failure, contingency planning ensures farmers (and extension agents) have ready-to-implement backup options.

The key principle: contingency plans must be prepared before the season begins, based on probability of various weather aberrations in the region. When the trigger condition occurs (e.g., monsoon delayed by 2 weeks), the appropriate plan is immediately activated.

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Types of Weather Aberrations Requiring Contingency Plans

1. Delayed Onset of Monsoon (>2 Weeks Delay)

Most critical contingency situation in rainfed agriculture.

• Action: Switch to short-duration crop varieties; practice dry sowing (sow without germination rains and wait for first effective rain); use contingency varieties suited to shortened growing season
• Example: if normal sowing of pigeonpea is June 15 but rains arrive July 15, switch from 180-day variety to 90-day variety

2. Aberrant Rainfall Distribution (Prolonged Mid-Season Dry Spell)

• Normal monsoon onset but extended dry spells during crop growth
• Action: Apply moisture-conserving tillage (inter-cultivation); use mulch to reduce evaporation; deploy supplemental irrigation from farm pond at critical crop stages (flowering, grain filling)
• Mulching with paddy straw or crop residue reduces soil moisture loss by 30–40%

3. Early Cessation of Monsoon

• Monsoon withdraws 3–4 weeks before normal cessation
• Action: Harvest early to salvage grain; switch long-duration crops to short-season alternatives at late sowing window; use farm pond for terminal irrigation

4. Flood or Excess Rainfall

• Submergence of standing crop; field drainage problems
• Action: Install drainage channels to drain excess water; replace submerged/damaged crops with flood-tolerant or short-duration varieties; replant after water recedes
• Flood-tolerant rice varieties: Swarna Sub-1 (submergence-tolerant up to 14 days)

5. Early or Late Frost

• Relevant for higher altitude rainfed areas (Rabi crops in North India, potato in hills)
• Action: Use frost-tolerant varieties; adjust planting dates to avoid frost-sensitive growth stages; smoke screens over small areas; protective irrigation at night

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ICAR-CRIDA: District-Level Contingency Plans

ICAR-CRIDA (Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad) is the nodal institution for contingency crop planning in India.

• Prepares district-level contingency plans for all 672 districts of India
• Each district plan includes:
  • Main crop plan: crops, varieties, sowing dates under normal conditions
  • Contingency plan A: actions for 2-week delay in monsoon onset
  • Contingency plan B: actions for 4-week delay
  • Contingency plan C: actions for 6-week delay or complete failure
  • Plans for mid-season and end-of-season aberrations
• Plans specify: crop, variety, seed rate, agronomic adjustments, expected yield
• Published online; distributed to KVKs (Krishi Vigyan Kendras) for farmer outreach

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Short-Duration Varieties for Contingency Situations

When monsoon is delayed, normal varieties cannot complete their lifecycle. Short-duration varieties bridge this gap.

Rice

Situation	Variety	Duration	Key Feature
2-week delay	Sahbhagi Dhan (DRR Dhan 42)	110 days	Drought-tolerant; low-input; developed by IRRI-IRRI collaboration
2-week delay	Lalat	115 days	High yield; suited to eastern India
4-week delay	DRR Dhan 44	115 days	Drought-tolerant; aerobic conditions

Maize

• 80–90 day varieties: Pioneer 3522, NK 6240 — suited to delayed sowing; respond well to limited inputs

Pigeonpea (Tur)

• ICPL 87119 (Asha): 90–100 days — most widely grown short-duration pigeonpea; developed by ICRISAT
• UPAS-120: 100–110 days; North India contingency variety

Pearl Millet (Bajra)

• HHB-67: 75 days; drought-escape strategy; very short duration; Haryana, Rajasthan

Green Gram (Moong)

• Pant Mung-5: 60–65 days; suitable for very late kharif or early rabi window after delayed monsoon

Groundnut

• TAG-24: 95 days; drought-tolerant; Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh
• VG-9514: short-duration groundnut for contingency

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Agronomic Practices for Late-Sown Situations

When crops are sown late, standard practices are adjusted to compensate for reduced growing period:

1. Increase seed rate by 25%: higher plant population compensates for reduced individual plant growth period; ensures adequate canopy coverage
2. Apply full basal fertilizer dose: no split application — the shorter season cannot accommodate multiple splits; one-time full application at sowing
3. Use short-duration, photoperiod-insensitive varieties: avoid traditional varieties that require specific day-length to flower — they may not flower in time
4. Skip topdressing if too late in season: applying topdressing fertilizer too late only increases vegetative growth without yield benefit
5. Inter-cultivation for moisture conservation: one pass at 20–25 DAS (Days After Sowing) to break soil crust, reduce evaporation, destroy weeds
6. Foliar nutrition: spray 2% urea + 0.5% KH₂PO₄ at critical stages to boost grain filling under shortened season

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Fodder Crops for Contingency

When food crop failure appears likely (e.g., very late monsoon making even contingency varieties uncertain), farmers can switch to fodder crops for livestock feed security:

• Sorghum (HC-308): 45–60 days; high biomass; multiple cuts possible
• Cowpea: 45 days to first cut; high protein (18–22%); also fixes nitrogen
• Maize: 45–60 days to green fodder harvest; high energy

Fodder crops ensure livestock survival during crop failure, protecting the farmer's key productive asset.

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Village Seed Banks

Timely seed availability is the limiting factor in contingency planning. If contingency variety seeds are not available within 48 hours of decision-making, the plan fails.

• Village-level seed banks managed by ICAR, NGOs, and Self Help Groups (SHGs)
• Maintain certified seed of key contingency varieties (short-duration rice, millets, pulses)
• Seed distributed on loan basis; returned after harvest (seed for seed system)
• Examples: ICAR seed bank network; Navdanya seed bank network; State Seed Corporations' contingency seed reserves

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Farm Ponds for Supplemental Irrigation

Even in rainfed farming, 1–2 critical irrigations at key crop stages dramatically improve yield stability:

• Farm pond water applied at flowering and grain filling stages can prevent crop failure during a 2–3 week dry spell
• Each 5–7 cm irrigation (one "lift") can increase yield by 30–50% under drought stress
• 30 × 30 × 3 m farm pond (2700 m³ capacity) can provide 2–3 supplemental irrigations to 1 ha crop

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Crop Insurance Under Aberrant Conditions

PMFBY (Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana) covers losses from contingency weather events:

• Coverage triggers: crop cutting experiments (CCE) estimate yield loss
• Payout for: prevented sowing (delayed monsoon), mid-season adversity (extended dry spells), post-harvest losses, localized calamities
• Premium: 2% for Kharif; 1.5% for Rabi food crops; 5% for commercial crops

Summary Cheat Sheet

Crop	Normal Sowing	2-Week Delay Option	4-Week Delay Option
Rice	June 15–July 1	Sahbhagi Dhan (110d); increase seed rate	Switch to maize (80d) or green gram (65d)
Pigeonpea	June 15–July 1	ICPL 87119 / Asha (90d)	Cowpea or green gram; pigeonpea too late
Maize	June 15–July 1	Short-duration hybrid (80d)	Only if rains by Aug 1; else fodder crop
Groundnut	June 15–July 1	TAG-24 (95d)	Switch to sesame (75d) or green gram
Pearl millet	June 15–July 15	HHB-67 (75d)	HHB-67; still feasible at 4-week delay
Sorghum	June 15–July 15	Short-duration (90d)	Fodder sorghum (45d cut)

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References

2 sources • [1] [2]

[1]

ICAR-CRIDA: District Agriculture Contingency Plans

Official

[2]

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)

Official