Agricultural Meteorology Division India Meteorological Department Shivajinagar, Pune-5

Annual Report

2010-2011

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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

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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

16

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.

17

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.