Agromet Advisory Services in Agriculture good & Informative 2023

Agromet Advisory Services in Agriculture

Abstract

The rise in climatic variability and associated extreme weather events, such as erratic rainfall distribution, abrupt changes in day and night temperatures during crop season, and sudden outbreaks of pest disease populations, are posing challenges to maintaining crop production levels, particularly in developing countries. The weather has an impact on the plant’s yield and growth. Managing climate risks is a major current and future challenge. Thus, risk in agricultural operations can be reduced by providing weather information that is properly interpreted for its agricultural significance, contains farm operation advisories, and is disseminated well in advance of impending weather. Farmers’ economic benefits are only expected to increase when they receive weather forecasts and Agromet Advisory Services at a favorable time, allowing them to implement appropriate crop management methods based on the upcoming weather. Farmers benefit from Agromet Advisory Services by reducing abnormal weather losses in agriculture, which leads to lower input costs and, ultimately, higher income. The Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme is currently being implemented through 130 AMFUs in each Agro-climatic Zone and 200 DAMUs in various districts across the country.

Keywords: Agromet Advisory Services, Aberrant weather, Agriculture, Weather Forecast, GKMS

Introduction:

The Indian economy is known as an agricultural economy because agriculture accounts for a large portion of our GDP. If the agriculture sector thrives, the Indian economy grows; if the agriculture sector does not perform well, the economy suffers. Agriculture is a game of chance with the weather, which is the most unpredictable in space and time. Unfavorable weather conditions have varying degrees of impact on almost all sectors. Food and fibre production, on the other hand, may be the most sensitive and vulnerable to such fluctuations. One of the most important factors influencing agricultural production is the weather. While all other physical factors, inputs, and agronomic practises can be controlled, the vagaries of weather cannot.Weather-induced crop variability accounts for roughly two-thirds of crop productivity. Crop yield is affected by weather parameters such as air humidity, maximum temperature, minimum temperature, cloud cover, rainfall, wind speed, and so on. Farmers’ decision-making abilities, such as crop selection, correct input use, and crop management, are also impacted. Managing climate risks is a major challenge for today and the future. Thus, risk in agricultural operations can be reduced by providing weather information that is properly interpreted for its agricultural significance, includes farm operation advisories, and is disseminated well in advance of impending weather. Our farming community requires timely custom-tailored weather forecasts in order to initiate appropriate measures to increase production while minimizing the impact of unusual weather on agriculture. Farmers’ economic benefits are only expected to increase when they receive weather forecasts and Agromet Advisory Services at a favourable time, allowing them to implement appropriate crop management methods based on the upcoming weather. In general, four types of weather forecasts are issued: nowcasts, short-range forecasts, medium-range forecasts, and long-range forecasts.Medium-range weather forecasts have proven to be the most useful of the four types of weather forecasts for agricultural production, as they assist farmers in making correct crop management decisions on day-to-day agricultural activities such as sowing, weeding, pesticide spraying, irrigation scheduling, fertiliser use, and so on. The need for Agromet Advisory Services is extremely beneficial to farmers. An information system used for decision making is part of a continuum, with scientific knowledge and understanding at the other end. This will alter their agricultural practices, making them more advanced and efficient in terms of sowing and harvesting crops. The Agromet Advisory Services provided by IMD, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme provide accurate, locally appropriate climate and weather real time information to help farmers make appropriate decisions in efficient resource utilisation and to take appropriate measures during extreme weather conditions, which will improve agricultural production both in quality and quantity. The impact analysis revealed that the weather-based agro-meteorological service has the potential to reduce the value of cultivation by two to five percent. For the betterment of agriculture in today’s era, it is necessary to provide agromet advisory services to farmers in real time so that they have enough lead time to act on it.

Current Status of Agromet Advisory Services:

In order to meet the needs of the farming community for weather information, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) launched the Farmers Weather Bulletin in 1945. IMD, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), in collaboration with ICAR and State Agriculture Universities, launched the District level Agromet Advisory Service (AAS) in 2008 through a network of Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs). Weather forecast-based Agromet Advisory is provided to farmers at the district level by a network of 130 Agro-Met Field Units (AMFUs) located at State Agricultural Universities, ICAR centres, and other institutions in each Agro Climatic Zone (ACZ). Keeping in mind the need for Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) to be more crop and location-specific to address wide variations in weather, under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS), IMD, in collaboration with ICAR, proposes to expand the network to cover 660 districts by establishing District Agro-Met Units (DAMUs) in an additional 530 districts, including 115 aspirational districts, in the premise of Krishi Vigyan Kendra ( DAMU/AMFU will create sub-district/block level Agromet Advisory Bulletins and distribute them to farmers across the country via multi-channel communication mechanisms, reaching 95.4 million farming households. Because of the high resolution forecast and appropriate Agromet Advisories for farmers in specific blocks, the implementation of block level AAS would benefit a greater number of farmers. Currently, the GKMS scheme is carried out by 130 AMFUs in each Agro-climatic Zone, who prepare District level Agromet Advisory Bulletins for all districts under their jurisdiction, as well as Block level advisories for all blocks within their respective district location. The establishment of DAMUs in KVK premises under GKMS is currently being completed in phases at 200 locations. All of the established DAMUs have begun to prepare block level AAB for all of their respective districts’ blocks. Every Tuesday and Friday, 690 district level AAB in operational mode and 2200 blocks on a pilot basis are prepared. Currently, 4.37 million farmers are receiving SMS alerts on their mobile phones via various modes of communication such as the mkisan portal, social media messenger whatsapp, and so on.Every Tuesday and Friday, 690 district level AAB in operational mode and 2200 blocks on a pilot basis are prepared. Currently, 4.37 million farmers are receiving SMS alerts on their mobile phones via various modes of communication such as the mkisan portal, social media messenger whatsapp, and so on.

Benefits of Agromet Advisory Services to Farmers:

• Agromet Advisories assists in increasing economic gains by appropriately adjusting farming and other agricultural-related activities in response to impending weather conditions.
• Increase profit by reducing weather-related losses and increasing operational timeliness. Gains can be realised by either lowering input costs or increasing output while minimising losses.
• Reduce environmental pollution by making the best use of chemicals.
• Beneficial for increasing farmer income.
• Aids farmers in making day-to-day decisions about crop selection, varieties, and intercultural operations (such as Irrigation, Fertilizer application, weeding, plant protection, Mulching, Harvesting etc.)
• Reduced cultivation costs and increased yield levels
• Reduces losses due to unusual weather and saves valuable inputs by postponing operations.
• The recommendations on other allied sectors (beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, sericulture, fisheries, cattle, sheep, and goat management, for example) help to improve productivity and profitability.
• Extreme weather advisories (Hail storm, Avalanche, Cyclone, Floods) also assist farmers in making immediate decisions on harvesting, draining excess water, and other necessary measures.
• Crop advisories can be used effectively in crop planning and management.
• Forecasts for maximum and minimum temperatures in the coming days aid in seed germination, crop growth and development, and crop maturity.
• Fog advisories, cold wave advisories in the winter, and heat wave advisories in the summer assist farmers in protecting their crops from extreme cold and extreme heat in the winter and summer, respectively.
• Agromet Advisory on wind speed and direction assists farmers with chemical spraying and is also useful during threshing time.
• Rainfall is the most important weather parameter, which can destroy the crop in two ways: occurrence in a low amount leads to water scarcity, while occurrence in a high amount leads to water logging conditions in the field. Therefore its prediction is very crucial in view of agriculture to provide the advisory to farmers such as irrigation management, spray of chemicals, fertilizer application, harvesting and threshing of crops and transportation of agricultural products.
• Agromet Advisory Service not only advises farmers on crops, but also on livestock management, which includes problems relating to animal health and their products, livestock housing management, health-related information, nutrition, vaccination, and so on.
• Aside from the benefits mentioned above, agromet advisories are also useful in assisting farmers with poultry issues such as identifying appropriate breeds, nutrition and feeding, disease control measures, hygiene animal house, general care i.e. necessary protection from heat, cold, wind, and so on.

Conclusion:

Following all of the discussions, it has become abundantly clear that agromet advisory services play a critical role in ensuring food safety and farmer well-being. Farmers rely on meteorological information provided by local and central authorities to make crop selection, crop sowing, intercultural practises, and harvesting decisions. Farmers can then ensure that their crops produce sufficient quantity and quality to meet current food demands. Agromet advisory services provide farmers with location-specific inputs as advisories that can make a huge difference in agriculture production by capitalising on favourable weather and mitigating the negative impact of abnormal weather. With the change in climate, this service has the potential to change the face of food security and poverty alleviation, which are two of the major challenges with the world’s rising population. Agromet advisories have assisted farmers in expanding their knowledge of farming practises, including information on modern technologies and best practises. Farmers who adhered to agromet advisories were able to reduce input costs and increase net profit. The use of agromet advisory bulletins based on current and forecast weather is a valuable tool for increasing production and income. The medium-term weather forecast is useful for issuing location-specific weather-based Agro-advice to tailor agricultural operations. An effective contingency cropping strategy is possible by closely monitoring seasonal conditions and using medium-range weather forecasts.

References:

Singh S, Singh D, Sheokand RN and Rao VUM. 2009. Web based Agrometeorological Information System for Sustainable Agricultural Development. Journal of Agrometeorology. 11 (Spl Issue): 234-237.

Rathore LS, Parvinder Maini. Economic impact assessment of agro-meteorological advisory service of NCMRWF 2008. Report No. NMRF/PR/01/2008, 104pp, Published by NCMRWF, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.

Singh S, Singh D, Sheokand RN and Rao VUM. 2009. Web based Agrometeorological Information System for Sustainable Agricultural Development. Journal of Agrometeorology. 11 (Spl Issue): 234-237.

Standard Operating Procedure For Agromet Advisory Services prepared by Agromet Advisory Services Division, New Delhi & Agrimet Division, Pune. https://mausam.imd.gov.in/imd_latest/contents/pdf/gkms_sop.pdf

Rajesh Kumar¹, Pawan Kumar² and Mohit Kamboj³

         ¹SMS Agricultural Meteorology, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jind-126102 Haryana, India.

         ²DES Extension Education, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Jind-126102 Haryana, India.

³Ph.D Scholar, Department of Agricultural Meteorology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125004, India

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