13% of Karnataka’s area under ‘severe stress’ for moisture

“In simple terms, this is the measurement of moisture in the atmospheric air. If the atmospheric air is dry, it increases the demand for evapo-transpiration. In such conditions, water increasingly evaporates directly from the soil surface as well as, substantially, from the leaf surfaces of vegetation, through a process called Transpiration. The repercussion on agriculture is that if the humidity is low and the demand for evaporation is higher, then the plant will suck more water from the soil and evaporate it. This means that the moisture in the soil which would deplete over ten days, will decrease in three days, for example. The plants will experience a drought-stress situation.”