Water agriculture and food security in the Amaravathi basin of Tamil nadu India

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether the SWAT hydrological model could successfully simulate runoff from Amaravathi basin, South India. The data in this study was obtained from the India WRIS website and it was measured using a stream gauge. The observed data was used to calibrate and validate the SWAT-CUP model using Sequential Uncertainty Fitting (SUFI-2) program. Results from the calibration shows good agreement between observed and simulated monthly stream flow data (NSE= 0.71). The model was capable 37% of the data in a limited uncertainty band r factor (0.37). The model was then validated using the same observed stream flow data during a different time period. Results for validation were again adequate (NSE= 0.60). The Model (71% of the data in the slightly larger uncertainty band r factor = 1.12 is used in this situation. Annual hydrological water balance was analyzed for the entire Amaravathi sub basin during the study. The overall behavior of the basin was presented based on the surface runoff, percolation and groundwater recharge and the whole basin response. The groundwater potential map was prepared by integrating layers of thematic maps such as geology, lineament density, land use and land cover, drainage density, geomorphology, soil and slope. More than 96.0 percent of the households reported that they were in food secured category . All these households were receiving food grains from the Fair Price Shops run by the Government based Public Distribution System (PDS). Almost 100 percent of households were reported that they get food three times a day. Therefore it can be inferred that these households could be considered to come under effective food secured category . newline