annual report of iaas 2010-11 - agricultural meteorology division
TRANSCRIPT
Agricultural Meteorology Division India Meteorological Department Shivajinagar, Pune-5
Annual Report
2010-2011
1
FOREWORD
AVM (DR.) AJIT TYAGI,VSM, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, New Delhi Agriculture represents a core part of the Indian economy and provides food and livelihood
activities to much of the Indian population. However, in order to keep pace with the increasing
population, the growth in agricultural production should be sustainable in the long run.
Uncertainties of weather and climate pose a major threat to food security of the country.
Agrometeorologists have tough challenges ahead in understanding the impact of weather and
climate on growth and yield of crops. Exciting opportunities exist today to help the agricultural
community through agrometeorological services. I feel that more concerted efforts are essential
to realize the present day needs of the farmers by the agricultural community of the country and
also meet the demands of the poorer section of the country.
In spite of advances made in weather forecasting and operational agromet advisory services to
the users, the real value in terms of offering right advice at right time to the farmers is
somewhat lacking. The integrated agromet advisory services launched with different
collaborating organizations in the country from 2007-08 for providing real time crop and
location specific agromet services even up to village level will go a long way not only in reducing
weather and climate related risks in Agriculture but also promote scientific agriculture.
It gives me a great pleasure to present this annual report of Agrimet Division for the year
2010-11. This report provides a summary of highlights on various services provided to farmers
under integrated agromet advisory services. I take the opportunity to thank the Ministry of
Earth Science for necessary support and to the Vice-Chancellors and Nodal officers and
Technical officers of different Agricultural Universities for successfully implementing this
project. I, also appreciate the initiative taken by the officers and staff members of the
Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department in bringing out annual
report of Agrimet Division for the year 2010-11.
AVM (DR.) AJIT TYAGI,VSM,
Director General of Meteorology India Meteorological Department Mausam Bhavan, Lodhi Road, New Delhi
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
No.
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Contents Page No.
1. Introduction 3
2. Integrated Agromet Advisory Services(IAAS) 3
3. Hosting of interactive website 4
4. Dissemination of Agrometeorological Bulletins 5
5. New Initiative 6
6. Farmers Awareness Programmes 6
7. Agromet Brochure 7
8. Infrastructure 7
9. Observational network for agromet services 7
10. Operational numerical weather prediction system of India Meteorological Department
7
11. Extended range Forecast System (ERFS) 10
12. Training 10
13. Annual Review meeting 11
14. Budget Expenditure under IAAS project 12
15. Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL)
12
16. Participation in Seminar/symposium/workshop/meeting
13
17. Research and publications 14
18. Award and Honours 15
19. Endorsements & Appreciation
16
20. Physical Targets in 2011-2012 16
21. Future Plans 17
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1. Introduction
The prime object of Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department (IMD),
Pune is to minimize the impact of adverse weather on crops and to make use of crop-weather
relationships to boost agricultural production. It is also the centre for research programmes in
agricultural meteorology and has field units in various parts of the country. This Division caters
to the needs of agriculturists and conducts research and developmental programme, in the field
of agricultural meteorology. In order to strengthen these services, the major activities
performed by the Division during 2010-11 were issuing of agromet advisory services, technical
assistance to observatories, R & D activities in crop weather studies, capacity building,
dissemination of agromet advisories through multi-purpose dissemination channels etc.
Besides, this Division acts an apex body for issuance of agromet advisory at district, state and
national level. During 2010-11 this Division carried the following important activities. Agromet
advisory services were the main services provided under the umbrella of operational Agromet
Advisory Services.
2. Integrated Agromet Advisory Services(IAAS)
IAAS project is being implemented through five-tier structure to set up different components of
the service spectrum. It include meteorological (weather observing & forecasting), agricultural
(identifying weather sensitive stress & preparing suitable advisory using weather forecast),
extension (two way communication with user) and information dissemination (Media,
Information Technology,
Telecom) agencies
Broad spectrum of the
activities of different tier
IMD has issued quantitative
district level (612 districts)
weather forecast up to 5 days
and the products comprise of
quantitative forecasts for 7
weather parameters viz.,
rainfall, maximum temperature,
minimum temperatures, wind
speed, wind direction, relative
humidity and cloudiness. In
addition, weekly cumulative rainfall forecast is also provided. IMD, New Delhi generates these
products using Multi Model Ensemble technique based on forecast products available from
number models of India and other countries. The products were disseminated to Regional
Meteorological Centres and Meteorological Centres of IMD located in different states. These
offices undertook value addition to these products using synoptic interpretation of model out
put and communicate to 130 AgroMet Field Units (AMFUs), located with State Agriculture
Universities (SAUs), institutes of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) etc. on every
Tuesday and Friday.
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The Agro-met Advisory Bulletins were issued at
district, state and national levels to cater the
needs of local level to national level. The district
level bulletins were issued by AMFUs and
include crop specific advisories including field
crops, horticultural crops and livestock. At
present these bulletins were issued for 550
districts of the country. The State Level bulletin
is a composite of district bulletins. These
bulletins were jointly prepared by State
Meteorological Centre of IMD and AMFUs and
mainly used by State Government functionaries.
This is also useful to Fertilizer industry, Pesticide industry, Irrigation Department, Seed
Corporation, Transport and other organizations which provide inputs in agriculture. This
bulletin is a significant input to the State level Crop Weather Watch Group (CWWG) meeting.
Presently, these bulletins were issued for all the states of the country. National Agromet
Advisory Bulletins were prepared by National Agromet Advisory Service Centre, Division of
Agriculture Meteorology, IMD, Pune, using inputs from various states. Ministry of Agriculture is
prime user of these bulletins, which help take important decisions in Crop Weather Watch
Group (CWWG) meetings at national level.
3. Hosting of interactive website
A new interactive website launched on to provide required information on AAS.
Main features of website were: Value added medium range weather forecast for
all districts,
Severe Weather Warning,
District, State & National level AAS bulletins on
real time basis twice a week,
Bulletins in English and Local languages
Alerts/warnings, FAQ, SMS, Feedback.
4. Dissemination of Agromet Advisories
Disseminating agrometeorological information is part of a process that begins with scientific
knowledge and understanding and ends with the evaluation of the information. Information on
agro-advisory is disseminated through multi-modes of delivery including mass and electronic
media. It include, All India Radio, Television, Print Media (local news paper in different
vernacular languages), internet (Web Pages) as well as group and individual relationships
through email, telephone etc. The Internet is one of the new and cost-effective technologies that
can provide this information in an accurate and timely manner.
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In addition to different multi-channel dissemination system, agromet advisories under the
project Integrated Agromet Advisory Service (IAAS) were being disseminated to the farming
community in India through SMS and IVR (Interactive Voice Response Technology). The
advisories were crop and location specific and delivered within actionable time to the farmers.
a. Existing projects of dissemination
A number of private firms namely Reuter Market Light, Handygo, Vritti Solution, IFFCO Kisan
Sanchar Limited (IKSL), Nokia is disseminating the agromet advisories generated under IAAS
through SMS and Interactive Voice. At present 15 states namely Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra
Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh have been covered under this service.
Advisory were also disseminated through SMS to the farming community of Maharashtra in
collaboration with the State Department of Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra. At present
1965361 farmers were benefitted by this
service.
b. Proposed projects of dissemination
The proposed project for dissemination of
agromet advisories are Tata Consultancy
Services, ITC e-Choupal, Common Service
Centre (CSC), National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural development (NABARD), MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation.
5. New Initiative
Recently IIIT, Hyderabad had been awarded the e Agromet by MoES to give the personalized
agromet advisory to the farmers in collaboration with ANGRAU, Hyderabad. Basic idea of this
project is to prepare agromet bulletins in advance by
analyzing past weather data of a region.
Objective: Creation of ICT-based agro-meteorological
advisory system to improve the quality, scalability and
reach.
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Methodology of the project is that Identify the potential weather deviations by analyzing weather data of 50 years. For each potential weather pattern, prepare Agromet Advisory Bulletin in advance.
Based on the weather prediction, system finds appropriate Agromet bulletin and sends
the same to farmers.
6. Farmers Awareness Programmes
Agrometeorological Advisory Service (AAS) have demonstrated the role of weather forecast in increasing overall preparedness of farmers, leading to substantially better outcomes overall. However, more efforts were needed to assist farmers to further develop their adaptive capacity with improved planning and better management decisions. Hence, more effective approaches to delivery of climate and weather information to farmers through participatory, cross-disciplinary approach is being carried out through enhancing awareness of information user groups. It is done through organizing farmer’s awareness programs, also termed as roving seminar that brings together research and development institutions, relevant disciplines, and farmers as equal partners to reap the benefits from weather and climate knowledge. Such programs were jointly organized by India Meteorological Department (Ministry of Earth Sciences), Indian Council of Agriculture Research and State Agricultural Universities, Local NGOs and other stake holders.
In order to improve the linkage with the AAS system and develop a local (Village) level rain measuring network, 5 rain gauge made of plastic were distributed to the selected group of progressive farmers during the meeting who were trained to record and report the rainfall observation to the concerned AMFUs who in turn communicate the data to IMD.
So far such seminars have been organized at 73 AMFUs namely Aduthurai, Allahabad, Ambalavayal, Ambikapur, Anand, Anakapalli, Anantpur, Arnej, Bhairaich, Bikaner, Bangalore, Bhatinda, Banswara, Barapani, Basar, Bharatpur, Bhawanipatna, Bhubaneshwar, Brahmavar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Chintapalli, Darisai, Dapoli, Diphu, Dumka, Faizabad, Hiriyur, Hyderabad, Hisar, Igatpuri, Jabalpur, Jagdalpur, Jagtiyal, Jammu, Jaipur, Jhabua, Jharnapani, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kakdweep, Kalyani, Kanniwadi, Kharagpur, Kolhapur, Kovilpatti, Lam, Leh, Lembucherra, Ludhiana, Majihan, Maktampur, Manipur, Mulde, Nammakal, New Delhi, Palampur, Parbhani, Pechiparai, Pillicode, Portblair, Pune, Pusa, Rajouri, Roorki,Ranital,Solan, Sonitpur, Srinagar, Thrissur, Udaipur, Tirupathi and Varanasi.
7. Agromet Brochure
Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department (IMD) in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Indian Institute of Technology published Agromet Brochure highlighting the activities of the Agrimet Division particularly the different were as of Integrated Agromet Advisory Services launched by IMD/Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) for the benefit
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of the Indian farmers. For general awareness and easier access to the services of IMD, the brochure is being circulated to the concerned organizations/institutes like Ministry of Agriculture (Central & State), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities, Regional Research Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Department of Space, NGOs and all other organization directly and indirectly related to the agricultural services in the country.Kannada, Malayalam, Telgu, Bengali brochures were completed.
8. Infrastructure
Agrimet Division building was renovated with new cabins for officers, new staff room, conference hall, training hall, server room, workstations, and computers.
9. Observational network for agromet services
Agrimet Division maintains different agromet observatories namely agro meteorological,
evaporation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, dew fall and desert locust monitoring. At
present there were 264 agro meteorological observatories, 42 ET and 43 soil moisture
observatories, 219 evaporation observatories and 76 dew fall observatories. 110 stations from
all over the country has been inspected by the officers/staff of IMD (Agrimet). Besides Agro
AWS at 98 places is installed all over the country and the data is being received in DCP, Pune
regularly. Scrutiny of CWS, SM, ET and dew data has been done upto year 2009.
10. Operational Numerical Weather Prediction System of India Meteorological
Department
To meet the operational requirements, action was initiated in IMD for a massive expansion of
computing facilities and atmospheric modelling systems under the modernization programme
of the Department. With the commissioning of High Performance Computing System (HPCS) in
December 2009, National Centre for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) based Global Forecast
System (GFS T382) has been made operation at the H/Q of IMD, incorporating Global Statistical
Interpolation (GSI) scheme as the global data assimilation for the forecast up to 7 days.
Currently, it runs twice in a day (00 UTC and 12 UTC). In addition to this, the meso-scale
forecast system WRF (ARW) with 3DVAR data assimilation is being operated daily twice, at 27
km, 9 km and 3 km horizontal resolutions for the forecast up to 3 days using initial and
boundary conditions from the IMD GFS-382. At ten other regional centres, very high resolution
mesoscale models (WRF at 3 km resolution) are made operational. NWP based objective
forecast products are prepared to support cyclone warning service. Doppler weather and meso-
scale dynamical model based nowcast system was made operational for the national Capital of
Delhi. Polar WRF is implemented to provide day to day short range (48 hours) weather forecast
for the Maitri region over Antarctica. District Level Quantitative five days weather forecasts
based on Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) system are being generated to support Agro-
Meteorological Advisory Service of India, making use of model outputs of state of the art global
models from the leading global NWP centres. All these NWP products are routinely made
available on the IMD web site www.imd.gov.in.
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A brief description of operational NWP system of IMD being used in operational agromet
services is given below:
i) Medium Range Forecast System (4-10 days)
(a) Implementation of Global Forecast System (GFS)
Global Forecast System (GFS, based on NCEP) at T382L64 resolution has been implemented at
NHAC, IMD HQ on IBM based High Power Computing Systems (HPCS). In horizontal, it resolves
382 waves ( 35 Km) in spectral triangular truncation representation (T382), for which the
Gaussian grid of 1152 x 576 dimensions are used. The model has 64 vertical levels (hybrid;
sigma and pressure). This new higher resolution global forecast model and the corresponding
assimilation system are adopted from NCEP, USA. The horizontal representation of model
variables is in spectral form (spherical harmonic basis functions) with transformation to a
Gaussian grid for calculation of nonlinear quantities and physics.
(b) Other operationally available Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) Products
IMD also makes use of NWP global model forecast products of other operational centres, like
NCMRWF T-254, ECMWF, JMA, NCEP and UKMO to meet the operational requirements of day to
day weather forecasts in the short to medium range time scale. Under a joint collaborative
research project IMD has been receiving global model outputs (in the GRIB format) of ECMWF
and JMA. The outputs (GRIB) of NCEP GFS are available freely from the Internet. The model
outputs of these models are post processed using GRIB decoder and various graphics products
are generated operationally in the real time mode. These NWP products are disseminated to the
operational forecasters at various IMD Forecast Centres/Offices through a ftp connectivity. IMD
receives NCMRWF T-254 and UKMO model outputs online from NCMRWF, Noida.
(c) Multi-model Ensemble (MME) Technique for District Level Quantitative Forecasts
IMD implemented a Multi-model Ensemble (MME) based district level quantitative forecasts in
the operational mode since 1 June 2008, as required for the Integrated Agro-advisory Service of
India. Five NWP models considered for this development work are: (i) National Centre for
Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) T-254, (ii) ECMWF T799, (iii) JMA T899, (iv)
UKMO and (v) NCEP GFS T-254. As the model outputs available are at different resolutions, in
the first step, model outputs of the constituent models are interpolated at the uniform grid
resolution of 0.25oX0.25o lat/long. In the second step, the weight for each model at each grid is
determined objectively by computing the correlation co-efficient between the predicted rainfall
and observed rainfall. High resolution gridded rain-gauge data produced operationally at
National Centre of IMD Pune are used for development and validation of the forecasts.
ii) Short Range Forecast System (0 – 72 hours)
a. Meso-Scale Assimilation System (WRF-VAR)
The regional mesoscale analysis system WRF (ARW) was implemented on the HPCS at HQ of
IMD, Delhi with its all components namely, pre-processing programs (WPS and REAL), data
assimilation program (WRF-Var), boundary condition updating (update_bc) and forecasting
model (WRF) and NCL for display. The pre-processed observational data from GTS and other
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sources prepared for the Global Forecast System in the BURF format (PREPBUFR of step 2 in
GFS) is also used in case of WRF assimilation. In the WRF-Var assimilation system, all
conventional observations over a domain (200S to 450N; 400E to 1150E) which merely cover
Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC), Delhi region are considered to improve the
first guess of GFS analysis. Assimilation is done with 27 km horizontal resolution and 38 vertical
eta levels. The boundary conditions from GFS forecasts run at IMD are updated to get a
consistency with improved mesoscale analysis. WRF model is then integrated for 75 hours with
a nested configuration (27 km mother and 9 km child domain) and with full physics (including
cloud microphysics, cumulus, planetary boundary layer and surface layer parameterization).
The post-processing programs ARW post and WPP are also installed on HPCS to generate
graphical plots and grib2 out for MFI-SYNERGIE system respectively.
b. Meso-scale model ARPS
The storm scale model ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System) was implemented for the
Delhi region at the horizontal resolution of 9 km with the assimilation of Doppler Weather
Radar observations.
c. The Quasi-lagrangian Model (QLM)
The Quasi-lagrangian Model (QLM) model is run to produce track forecasts based on the initial
conditions of each day based on 00 UTC and 12 UTC observations when the disturbance is in
cyclonic storm stage. The QLM is a multilevel fine-mesh primitive equation model with a
horizontal resolution of 40 km and 16 sigma levels in the vertical. The integration domain
consists of 111x111 grid points in a 4440 x 4440 km2 domain that is centred on the initial
position of the cyclone. Very recently, model has been updated (from 36 to 72 hours) to get six
hourly track forecasts valid up to 72 hours.
iii) Multi-model Ensemble (MME) Technique for cyclone track prediction
A multimodel ensemble (MME) technique is developed using cyclone data of 2008. The
technique is based on a linear statistical model. The predictors (shown in Table 2) selected for
the ensemble technique are forecasts latitude and longitude position at 12-hour interval up to
72-hour of five operational models. In the MME forecasts, model-forecast latitude position and
longitude position of the member models are linearly regressed against the observed latitude
position and longitude position respectively for each forecast time at 12-hours intervals for the
forecast up to 72-hour. Multiple linear regression technique is used to generate weights
(regression coefficients) for each model for each forecast hour (12hr, 24hr, 36 hr, 48hr, 60hr,
72hr). These coefficients are then used as weights for ensemble forecasts.
iv) Nowcast and very short range forecasting systems (0-6 hours)
For nowcasting purposes, application software called “Warning Decision Support System Integrated Information (WDSS-II)”, developed by National Severe Storm Lab, USA has been used in experimental mode. For mesoscale forecasting, radar data has been assimilated into the ARPS mesoscale model. With the ingesting of Indian DWR observations, the application software is capable of detecting and removing anomalous propagation echoes.
11. Extended range Forecast System (ERFS)
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ERFS Project seeks to improve capacity to forecast weather in monthly scale, and to demonstrate use of forecasts and other climate information to benefit agriculture/rural livelihoods.
The project adopts a demonstration approach, focusing on select districts in nine states that face significant livelihood impacts due to weather & climate variability
Under the projects, scientists have been trained.
Meeting on "Climate Risk Management in Agriculture" was organized at Jaipur during 7- 8 December, 2010 to apprise the PIs about the progress of the project.
12. Training
Agromet Core Course was from 7.9.2010 to 25.6.2010. Total eight candidates attended the training programme. Capsule course for Foreign trainees was conducted from 13.12.10 to 17.12.10. From Indonesia 4 participants attended the training. Training course on ‘Agrometeorology towards better advisories for serving end users requirement’ for AMFU scientists, for 3 weeks duration was conducted from 18.1.2010 to 5.2.2010. Agromet Observers course of three weeks duration was conducted from 8.2.2010 to26.2.2010. Ten candidates participated in the course. Also Cropping System Models for Applications in Land Resource Management’ from 18- 22 Oct. 2010
jointly organized with ICRISAT at Hyderabad.
Training course on ‘Agrometeorology towards better advisories for serving end users requirement’ for AMFU scientists, was conducted from 15.02.11 to 07.03.11 at CTI, Pashan by the Agrimet Division. 24 trainees in the rank of Assistant Professor, Associate professor from different State Agril. Universities (SAUs) working as Technical officers, Nodal officers, Advisory Board members from different Agrometeorological Field units (AMFUs) participated in the course.
13. Annual Review Meeting
Annual Review meeting was organized at
Archarya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University,
Hyderabad during 20-22 December, 2010.
Major recommendations of ARM are as
follows:
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There is need to develop products on soil moisture, crop indices, stress identification, pest &
disease mapping etc. for preparation on crop and location specific agromet advisories.
There is need to prepare unified system for verification of District level weather forecast
The success of the district level agromet advisories depends on the accuracy of forecast. It
has been observed that there is a need to improve the district level forecasts particularly in
monsoon season
There is need to provide weather information and weather forecast as well as important
agromet advisories to State Government Officials and all other users in the state including
the fertilizer industries and seed corporation etc.
Though initiative has been taken by Agrimet Division, Pune to disseminate the agromet
advisories under PPP models to around 1 million farmers; but there is a need to extend this
service to 3 million farmers during next one year.
In order to facilitate wider dissemination of agromet advisories through mobile and other
sources the information may be provided free of cost to disseminating agencies and funding
from ATMA may be explored.
Though a number of AMFUs have started preparation of weather based advisories; still
there is lot of scope for preparation of weather based advisories particularly in unseasonal
and extreme weather conditions. Besides, district level AAS bulletins should be prepared for
all the districts (619) of the country at the earliest.
Feedback at different levels on real time basis is one of the important component; hence it
may be obtained on regular basis and used in preparation of need based agromet advisories.
There is need to quantify the impacts of unseasonal weather and extreme weather events on
crops.
District level Agromet Unit may be set up in collaboration with ICAR.
Initiative for sensitization of media for popularization of AAS may be taken up on priority
basis. Krishi Darshan Programme is an ideal platform for popularizing the Agromet
Advisory Services as large mass of the users sees this programme on regular basis.
Regular monitoring of preparation of agromet advisory bulletins as well as sending the
replies of the user’s queries at different levels is required to make this service more vibrant
and useful.
Under the changing climate and cropping pattern in different parts of the country, there is a
need to revisit the classification of agroclimatic zones.
ICRISAT and other NGOs are giving useful services particularly in watershed areas. Similarly
NRSC generate useful satellite information and products for agriculture. This information
will be useful in preparation of advisories.
Data, meteorological and crop, sharing mechanism may be evolved between IMD and ICAR
for development of crop growth simulation models and other R& D activities required for
AAS and FASAL project.
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14. Budget Expenditure under IAAS project
Combined BE/Actual expenditure (Revenue & Capital) for the three project for FY 2010-11 (in lakhs)
15. Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL)
India Meteorological Department has developed crop yield forecasting models based on multiple correlation and regression technique. It is a linear combination of predictors (both meteorological parameters and technological parameters), which takes into account the influence of weather and technological advances on yield. Based on the above methodology, pre-harvest crop yield forecast models have been developed for kharif rice &rabi wheat for meteorological subdivision in those parts of the country where
these crops were grown predominantly. It is proposed that IMD would develop crop yield forecasting models for major crops of the country with greater accuracy in collaboration with Department of Space (DOS) and Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC).
The crop yield forecasts at different stages of the growth period would be issued as follows:
First yield forecast (F0) will be given by IEG using econometric model before the start of crop season (pre-planting stage).
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Efforts will be made by IMD to develop yield forecast at planting stage using agromet models.
Mid season yield forecast (F2) will be provided by IMD using agromet model and crop areas estimation will be provided by SAC. These information will be communicated to DAC to forecast the crop production at national / state/ district level.
Pre-harvest yield forecast (F3) will also be provided by IMD using agromet model and crop areas estimates will be provided by SAC. Similar to mid-season forecast, both these information will be communicated to DAC for final forecast of crops before harvest.
16. Participation in Seminar/Symposium/workshop/meeting
Officers of the division participated in the following seminars / symposium/
workshops/ meeting:
Sr.NO Meeting/Workshop Officers attended
1 South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF)
meeting at Pune
Dr. R.P. Samui, DDGM (Ag) and Dr. N.
Chattopadhyay
2 Climate Risk Management Agriculture at
OUAT, Bhubaneshwar Dr. K. Ghosh,Met-I
3 Sustainable Agriculture and Rural
Development Biovillage as a Delivery Mode Smt. Gracy John and Smt. R.S. Bhagwat
4 Plan Review Meeting at New Delhi. Dr. R.P. Samui, DDGM (Ag)
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Meeting with IFFCO regarding dissemination
of Agromet Advisory Service for the farmers
under IFFICO system.
Dr. R.P. Samui, Scientist F/DDGM (Ag)
and Dr. N. Chattopadhyay
6 5th SERC School Planning Committee Meeting
at CRIDA, Hyderabad Dr. R.P. Samui, Scientist F/DDGM (Ag)
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Dissemination of AgrometAdvirsories through
SMS to the farmers of Maharashtra” at CTI,
Pashan
Dr. L.S. Rathore, Nodal officers and
Technical officers from 9 AMFU’s of
Maharashtra State, DAO from respective
AMFU districts, officers from
Commissionerate of Agriculture and
officers from Agrimet Division, Pune
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International conference on “Eliminating
Hunger and Poverty : Priorities in Global
Agricultural Research and Development
Agenda in an Era of Climate change and Rising
Food prices” at MS Swaminathan Foundation
at Chennai.
Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Scientist E
9 Implementation of FASAL at Pune
Nodal officers and Technical officers of
Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) and
experts in the field of crop yield
forecasting.
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Cochran Fellowship Training Programme on
“Weather Modeling for Crop Forecasting”
organized by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Washington D.C.
Dr.R.P. Samui, DDGM
(Agrimet)/Scientist F
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Curtain Raiser Meet on Research Need Arising
due to Abiotic Stresses in Agriculture
Management in India under Global Climate
change Scenario at Malegaon, Baramati
Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Scientist E
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National Policy Dialogue on Climate Change
Action ( Par I ) organized by M.S.Swaminathan
Foundation, Chennai,
Dr.R.P. Samui, DDGM
(Agrimet)/Scientist F
13
International meeting on “Climate Risk
Management in Agriculture” organized jointly
by IIT, New Delhi, IMD and Agricultural
Research Station, at Jaipur
Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Scientist E
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Fourth Annual Review Meeting on Integrated
Agromet Advisory Service (IAAS), held at
Archarya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University,
Hyderabad
Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Scientist-E, Dr. A.
Kashyapi, Director, Dr. K. Ghosh,
Director, Dr. M.Rajavel, Met.-I and Shri.
R. Balasubramanian, Met-I
15 Agricultural Drought Monitoring and
Vulnerability Assessment at NRSA, Hyderabad
Dr.R.P. Samui, DDGM
(Agrimet)/Scientist F
16 e Agromet ICT Enabled Integrated Agro-
meteorological Advisory system” Expert committee
17. Research and publications
Crop weather calendars for Delhi, Punjab and Haryana.
Agroclimatic Atlas of India: For developing
new genetic strains and evolving most effective
agricultural performance, proper knowledge of
agroclimatic conditions is necessary for
effective planning cropping pattern and
development of different zones of the country.
An updated version of Agroclimatic Atlas is
prepared by taking more no. of stations
alongwith inclusion of more no. of parameters.
Soil Moisture Mapping of India: Soil moisture status is an
important component of water balance in a region. Based on
short period data series publication on “Soil Moisture
Mapping of India” has been prepared by the Agrimet
Division. Gravimetric observations of soil moisture (SM) on
bare soils from a network of 30 stations in India from 1991 to
2006 have been used to compute Soil water content in mm for
different depth intervals viz. surface-7.5 cm, 7.5-22.5 cm,
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22.5-37.5 cm, 37.5-52.5 cm and 52.5-75.0 cm. The useful information generated through the
publication can be used for monitoring drought, early indication of onset of droughts and
irrigation scheduling.
A number of research activities on different aspects of agrometeorology were carried out in the Division and research papers were published in different books and journals
Sr.No Name of Paper Author Publication
1 Influence of weather factors on
light trap catches of green leaf
folder at Pattambi, Kerala
J.P. Sable, Chandana
Das and R.P. Samui
Journal of Agrometeorology
Vol. 12 (1):108-110 ( June,
2010).
2 Weather based crop protection
stewardship at Pattambi,
Kerala
R.P.Samui, K
Karthikeyan and J.P.
Sabale
MAUSAM, October,
2010 Vol. 61, No.
3 Spatial and temporal
distribution of Tmax, Tmin and
growth stage wise
quantification of growing
degree days demand of rice
crop at various locations
A. Kashyapi, and A.P.
Hage
TROPMET 2010, VAYU
MANDAL Vol. 34, no.1-4.
4 Drought Monitoring over India
through Normalized Difference
Vegetation Index (NDVI)
M.V. Kamble, K.
Ghosh, M. Rajeevan
and R.P. Samui
MAUSAM, October,
2010 Vol. 61, No.
5 Crop specific requirement of
growing degree days and
agrometeorological indices in
rice growing zones
A.Kashapi, A.L.
Koppar and A.P. Hage
Mausam
6 Validation of CERES Maize
model for growth, yield of
attributes and yield of
maize in NEPZ of eastern U.P
R. Balasubramanian Journal of Agrometeorology.
Vol.12 No.1, 2010
7 Climate Change and
Agriculture over North East
India
Dr. R. P. Samui and M.
V. Kamble
Published in the ‘SATSA
MUKHAPATRA- Annual
Technical Issue, Volume 15 :
2011 on climate change – its
impact, adaptation and
mitigation in agriculture’
brought out by the State
Agricultural Technologist’s
service Association, West
Bengal.
8 Climate Chnage and Food
Security in India
N. Chattopadhyay Climate Change and Food
Security in South Asia,
Springer Publication,, 2011
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18. Award and Honours
Smt. M.V. Kamble, S.A. “The Best Group B
Employee Award” for the year 2009-2010 given by
the Honourable Minister of Earth & Science Shri
Prithviraj Chanvan, on the foundation day on
27.7.2010 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
19. Endorsements and Appreciation: In his visit to India in November 2010, Barak
Obama, President of USA appreciated the dissemination of weather and agromet advisories through
mobile phone free of cost to the farmers of India.
20. Physical Targets in 2011-2012
a. Automation of Agromet Observatories
To obtain real time and accurate agrometeorological data in digital format.
To start recording surface observation at 300 UTC and 1200 UTC at agrometeorological observatories.
To introduce state-of-art system for the collection, scrutiny and digitization of observations.
Use in operational agromet advisory services and crop yield forecasting and also the surface observations as input to the NWP models .
To start as pilot project in Gujarat & Maharashtra.
b. A pilot Project on: Block Level Agro-meteorological Advisory Service
A pilot project is proposed to be initiated jointly by IMD and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) under the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to develop block level advisories for district in Haryana, Bihar and Rajasthan.
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The objectives were:
To generate block level weather forecast in short and medium range.
To develop suitable mechanism for preparation and dissemination of weather forecast and advisories.
To strengthen extension & awareness amongst farmers about weather data and agro-meteorological information.
Budget under preparation in consultation with CGIAR.
c. Generation of agrometeorological products using GIS software
The broad objective is to evolve strategic and tactical decision using the GIS software in development of various products in the field of agriculture.
Requisite meteorological data, crop data and soil data to generate location and crop specific agromet products like pest forecasting, irrigation scheduling, fertilizer application etc. for real time use.
21. Future Plans
Agromet Advisory Services at Block Level: District-level weather forecast is provided to 130 Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) located at the State Agriculture Universities (SAUs), institutes of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), IITs, etc. There is need to further improvement in these services particularly through preparing the weather forecast at a level smaller than a district, extend the temporal range of weather forecast and also aggressive extension, outreach & agromet advisory dissemination system. Such idea leads to take up the new concept of establishing the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa in the country under the 12th Five Year Plan. The main objective is to improvise the existing District level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) during 12th Five Year Plan, to deliver crop and location specific AAS to farmers at block level with village level out reach. In order to operate at block level, there is a strong need to set an operational unit at District level. Hence, it is proposed to set up District Agromet Units (DAMUs) in the country. Dedicated staff, along with the required infrastructure, will be needed at these centres. These stations may be collocated with the existing Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) which are operating through State Agriculture Universities, ICAR Institutions and NGOs etc. and are funded and technically guided by ICAR. There are a few bottlenecks in the existing services like optimum observations, seamless weather forecast, manpower and permanency of staff in AMFUs, real-time information flow particularly crop & pest/disease information, establishment of connectivity, outreach/extension mechanism, R & D support for Agrometeorology etc. Dissemination of right information at right time to each and every farmer of the country is a challenging job. The proposed projects for dissemination of agromet advisory bulletin are through IFFCO KIsan Sanchar Ltd., Reutor Market Light (RML), MahaAgri, Vritti Solutions, Handygo,Common Service Centres (CSC), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), NOKIA, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), ITC e–Choupal etc. Inclusion of these services will cover large fraction of farmers in the country to get the benefit. Moreover, Agrimet Division, IMD is establishing linkages with the State level ICTs like Kisan Kerala, e-livestock; ICT for agriculture knowledge management needs to be establishment, etc. All FM channels of AIR and nowcasting centres of Doordarshan under Prasar Bharati may also be included. Regular feedback from farmers, State Agricultural Departments and Agricultural Universities / ICAR and other related Institutes would be collected and processed for further improvement of services. Feedback information would also be collected from Regional and Narrowcasting stations of DD, AIR, and FM channels, KVKs, ATMA, CSCs, NGOs, VRCs and VKCs and also through Kisan Melas.
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The District Agrometeorological Units may be set up at KVKs through provision of grant-in-aid on the same pattern as is being done for AMFUs under the existing memorandum of understanding with the collaborating universities/institutions. The GIA covers expenditure on salary of one Technical Officer, Travel, Infrastructure etc. The main functions of the District Agromet Units (DAMUs) will be as under;
1. Receive weather forecast from IMD and prepare Agromet Advisory bulletins at block levels. For this DAMU will be guided by AMFU.
2. Disseminate Agromet advisory bulletins through print media, radio, Television and other possible mechanisms.
3. Assess users’ requirements and impact of AAS. 4. Participate / operate Agri-clinics or such mechanism (Kisan Call Centers). 5. Participate in farmers fair and organize awareness activities to popularize AAS. 6. Maintain agro-met observatory, record observation, dispatch and store data. 7. Prepare local climatological information & data base. Receive current weather observations
and agricultural data from districts. 8. Identify weather sensitivity of crops, animals, pests& diseases and management practices. 9. Prepare annual reports and submit the same to designated authorities 10. Collect feedback information from Regional and Narrowcasting stations of DD, AIR, and FM channels, KVKs, ATMA, CSCs, NGOs, VRCs and VKCs and also through Kisan Melas and Co-ordination with KVKs, ATMA and NGO for better improvement of the system 11. R & D work to scale up agromet system. The main functions of the Agro-Meteorological Field Unit (AMFUs) will be as under; 1. Prepare Agromet Advisory bulletins at block levels
2. Monitoring and coordination of activities of AMFUs under its area of operation & agroclimatic zone level review meetings.
3. Networking to expand the outreach of AAS up to village level. Induce information technology and private public partnership to expand outreach.
4. Management of Agro-met observatory network. 5. Securing inputs from DAMUs to prepare state level advisory bulletin. 6. Assessment of impact of inclement weather on crop at agroclimatic zone level. 7. Preparation of agroclimatic zone level agro-climatological information. 8. Collate crop information from concerned agencies and provide the same to DAMUs. 9. Prepare Agro-met products for respective districts. 10. Set up Agro-met Kiosks with appropriate network for dissemination of advisory bulletins. Project implementation will involve recruitment of manpower at DMAU, procurement of capital equipments, modernization of Agromet Observatory, R&D, economic assessment, setting of lysimeters and also specialized observation system at Central Agromet Observatory. The Financial requirement to implement blocks level agromet advisories and setting up of district level Agrometeorological Units is as under. Total budgetary support required for implementation of the project “Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa” for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) will be Rs. 266.02 Crores.
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Total budget required for implementation of “Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa”
*AMC
S.No Item 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Total
AMFUs
1 Manpower @Rs.35780 for 1 Met-
II with 10 % increasing every
year for 130 AMFUs
5.58 6.14 6.70 7.26 7.81 33.49
2 Contingency for 130 AMFUs @ 1.3 lakhs/year
1.69
1.69
1.69
1.69
1.69
8.45
3 Travel grant (for 130 AMFUs) @ 60 thousand/year
0.78
0.78
0.78
0.78
0.78
3.9
DAMUS
4 Manpower (510 DAMUs) @35780
for 1 Met-II with 10 % increasing
every year
21.90 24.09 26.28 28.47 30.66 131.38
5 Contingency (510 DAMUs) @ 1
lakh per DAMU/year
5.1
5.1
5.1
5.1
5.1
25.5
6 Travel grant (510 DAMUs) @ 40
thousand per DAMU/year
2.04
2.04
2.04
2.04
2.04
10.2
7 Capital Equipments (for HQ,
AMFUs and DAMUs)
10.22 1.02* 1.02 1.02 1.02 14.3
8 Modernisation of agromet
observatories
3.5 3.5 - - - 7.0
9 Training 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 2.50
10 Capital works 1.50 2.40 - - - 3.90
11 R & D+ economic assessment 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 25.00
12 Workshop/Seminar/Symposium/ 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.15
13 Outreach & Publicity 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.25
TOTAL
266.02
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Year wise allocation of funds (Rs. Crores)
Type of expenditure 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Total
Manpower 27.48 30.23 32.97 35.72 38.47 164.87
Capital equipments 10.22 1.02* 1.02 1.02 1.02 14.3
Capital works 1.50 2.40 - - - 3.90
Revenue (Contingency, Travel, R&
D+Economic
Assessment,training,Workshop/Seminar/
Symposium, Outreach & Publicity,
Modernisation of agromet observatories)
18.69 18.69 15.19 15.19 15.19 82.95
Total 266.02
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Editorial Team :
Dr. L. S. Rathore, Dr. R.P. Samui, Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Dr. M. Rajavel,
Smt S. V. Chandras, Smt V. R. Choudhari
Published by
Agricultural Meteorology Division,
India Meteorological Department, Shivajinagar,
Pune – 411 005.