Operational Agrometeorological Service in India and associated RA countries

Dr. N. ChattopadhyayDirector

Agricultural Meteorology DivisionIndia Meteorological Department

Pune, MaharashtraIndia

nabansu_c@yahoo.co.in

Countries under RA IICountries under RA II AgrometAgromet service in RA II Regionservice in RA II Region OrganisationalOrganisational StructureStructure Operational ServiceOperational Service Research & DevelopmentResearch & Development CommunicationCommunication FeedbackFeedback Awareness ProgrammeAwareness Programme Economic ImpactEconomic Impact Future ThrustFuture Thrust

Outlines of Presentation

Countries in RA II Region

Republic of YemenOmanKuwaitTurkmenistan

Islamic Republic of Russian FederationIraqPakistanSri Lanka

Islamic State of MongoliaIranKazakhstanSaudi Arabia

Socialist Republic of VietnamIndiaTajikistan Maldives

United Arab EmiratesQatarUzbekistanHong Kong

Peoples Democratic Republic of LaoChinaMacaoCambodia

Republic of KoreaNepalJapanBangladesh

Democratic Peoples Republic of KoreaBahrain MyanmarAfghanistan,

Out of 34 Member counties in RA II, 14 countries directly involved inagromet service.

These are :Bangladesh, Qatar, Japan, Nepal, Viet Nam, SouthKorea, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, India, Thailand, China,Laos, and Iran.

These countries are engaged in agrometeorological service andissue agrometeorological bulletins.

Such activities in the 11 counties were conducted within theirNMSs.

In Qatar, agrometeorological activities are conducted within theMinistry of Agriculture.

In Japan and Viet Nam, such operations are managed jointly by theMinistry of Agriculture and the Meteorological Organization.

The last country to begin agrometeorological operations wasBangladesh in 1986.

Current status of AgroMet Services in RA II

Agrometeorological products and advisories in RA II Countries

• With the exceptions of Qatar and Laos, all the countries issue agrometeorological bulletins for their users on a regular basis.

• These bulletins are prepared in different forms in various countries because of independent observational methods.

• In Uzbekistan, weekly bulletins are provided during the cultivating period to identify the best time for crop management.

• In Nepal, weekly bulletins just represent climate information.• In Iran, weekly, monthly and seasonal bulletins include climate as

well as soil and canopy information. • Ten-day bulletins are regularly prepared in all countries except

Qatar, Nepal, Thailand, India, and Laos include different information.

•

contd….In Bangladesh and Japan only climate information is provided, while in the other countries including Viet Nam, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, China, and Mongolia climate, soil and canopy parameters are observed and included in 10 -day bulletins.

• In Mongolia, in addition to the above-mentioned types of information, pasture and animal husbandry related matters are also contained in 10-day bulletins.

• In Bangladesh, Qatar, Japan, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Laos monthly bulletins are not prepared.

• While in other countries monthly bulletins with information on soil, climate and canopy are given to users.

• Further to weekly, 10-day and monthly bulletins, other kinds of publications such as seasonal bulletins in Bangladesh, Viet Nam, Uzbekistan and Iran are prepared for each product based on observed climate, soil and canopy parameters.

• In particular, in Viet Nam special reports are prepared for climate related impacts on vegetation, forest, farming and other agricultural sectors.

Organizational Organizational StructureStructure

Integrated AAS in India

Drivers of Integration‐Need for Crop specific District Level Advisory 

and Village Level Outreach.

TIER 1

Apex Policy Planning BodyApex Policy Planning Body

TIER 2

National Agro Met National Agro Met 

Service HQ (Execution)Service HQ (Execution)

TIER 3

State Agro Met Centres~28State Agro Met Centres~28

coordination/monitoringcoordination/monitoring

TIER 4AMFUsAMFUs

Agro Climatic Zone Level ~ 130Agro Climatic Zone Level ~ 130

TIER 5District Level Extension & TrainingDistrict Level Extension & TrainingInput management as advisoryInput management as advisory

Integrated AAS in India

Drivers of Integration‐Need for Crop specific District Level Advisory 

and Village Level Outreach.

5 1021

28

4863

73 80 81 81 81 82 83

107

127

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2005 2007

Year wise progress of Agromet Field Unit from 1991 to 2007

130

Organisation in Iran• Iran established Agrometeorological section in the civil Meteorological

Organization.• Working committees and groups were formed. • Stations' activity programmes came under supervision of their related central

section in the Meteorological Organization.• An Agrometeorological section found its identity and Agrometeorological

research stations were constructed, one after another, be it at a slow pace.• Presently (that is 2002), 28 Agrometeorological stations are actively engaged in

research work in Iran.Future plans are:1. Increasing the number of agrometeorological stations in the major agricultural

regions. 2. Improving the number of crops and fruit trees under examination in

agrometeorological stations all over Iran. 3. Providing a concise agrometeorological database, including phenological

and climatological data. 4. Establishing stronger scientific relations between the agrometeorologial

department and international organizations.

Operational ServiceOperational Service

IMD/NCMRWF

127 AG.MET. FIELD UNITS

DISTRICT AGRICULTURE OFFICES OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

PREPARATION OF DISTRICT WISE MEDIUM RANGE WEATHER FORECAST

BY STATE MET CENTRE

PREPARATION OF DISTRICT SPECIFIC AGRO-ADVISORIESFOR CONCERNED AGRO-CLIMATIC

DISSEMINATION OF DISTRICT LEVEL

AGRO-ADVISORIES

FARMERS(THROUGH MEDIA, EXTENSION SERVICES, PERSONAL CONTACT)

District‐wise Agro‐met data

Agro‐climate level agro‐met data

Feedback analysis

Proposed District Level Agro-Met Advisory Service System

Multimodel Super Ensemble Technique

NCMRWFT-254

UK Met

NCEP GFS

JMA

Generation of Multi-model ForecastsPrecise & Accurate District Level Weather Forecast (DLWF)

• Stock-taking on accuracy of DLWF. • Special session is arranged to discuss the

issue. • This would be a lesson learn exercise

based on our experience during monsoon 2008.

Also Discuss• Methods for value addition.• Additional observations• Communication system• Forecast verification procedure.

Forecast = ∑ wiFi +dd = Value - addition

District bulletin of

Sindhudurg, Maharashtra,

India

Composite bulletin for

State- Sikkim

National Agromet

Advisory Service Bulletin

Agromet Products- Some examples• Pesticides application – prediction of pests and diseases incidence /

chance of epidemic occurrence, when to apply, prepone/ postponing application based on sensitive weather elements.

• Fertilizer application – when to apply i.e. pre-poning/ postponing application based on sensitive weather elements.

• Application of Irrigation – when and how much to apply i.e. pre-poning /post-poning application based on past weather as well as weather forecast.

• Date of sowing• Date of harvest• Incidence of cold / heat waves • Incidence of frost and fog• Incidence of agricultural drought• Contingent crop planning • Selection of cultivars

Agrometeorological Advisory BulletinPMD 10 days Agromet Bulletin based on actual observations

and field reports(March 11-20, 2009)

• In Sindh Province: Atmospheric humidity may range between 30-40% where as Reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) may remain close to 3.0 – 4.0 mm/day.

• As days are still smaller than nights during the current decade,therefore the photosynthesis period may remain around 8 to 10 hours following an increasing trend towards south.

• The intensity of solar radiations is likely to vary from 12.0 MJ/M2/day over northern plains to 16.0 MJ/M2/day in the southern parts of the country.

• Winds are expected to blow at a speed between 4-8 Km/hour with direction mostly from northerly to northwesterly.

• Rabi crops will around be in their early stages of development, therefore their water requirements are not as high as mature crops

National Agromet CentreIslamabad-Pakistan

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT BULLETIN

MEALYBUGS - Damages Surpass Economic thresholdMealybugs has been reported to be mainly responsible for ruining an estimated 3m bales of cotton in Punjab and if uncontrolled, it may destroy 5m bales of cotton during the season. Areas of Multan, RahimYar Khan and Bahawalnagar are under are severe attack of Mealybugs. Some useful tips are listed here for effective control of mealybugs.

Mix 1 to 2 cups alcohol [Use only 70% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol] per quart of water. Using undiluted alcohol as a spray is very risky for plants. You can also mix up an insecticidal soap spray according to the dilution on the label but substitute alcohol for half of the water required.

Site-specific frost warning in mountainous regions by estimating geographic potential for cold-air accumulation (Korea)

Nocturnal cold air pools, which frequently form in complex terrain under anticyclonic systems, are a hazard to flowering buds of temperate fruit trees, but the spatial resolution to anticipate them exceeds the current weather forecast scale. To supplement the insufficient spatial resolution of official minimum temperature forecasts, a spatial interpolation scheme incorporating local geographic potential for cold air accumulation was developed.

Empirical equations describing the potential effects of cold airaccumulation and of the inversion profile on minimum temperature were combined with a conventional lapse rate-corrected inverse distance weighting interpolation scheme. This new interpolation scheme was successfully validated with an independent data set, showing a strong feasibility for development of a site-specific frost warning system for mountainous areas.

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Home Monthly Drought

Monitor

Monthly Drought Monitor Predictions

Bangladesh

Provide weather forecasts for farmers on routine basis and also issue warnings for severe weather phenomena such as tropical cyclones, tornadoes, nor’westers, heavy rainfall, etc.

Agrometeorological Observatory in Iran

AGROMETEOROLOGICAL ZONING IN CHINA AND DAMAGES OF THE POTATO CROP BY BACTERIAL WILT

Based upon studies on strains of Pseudomonas solanacearum, collected from different potato cropping zones, two races have been observed, race 1 and race 3.

It is known that race 1 has a high optimum growth temperature of 35-370C, whereas race 3 possesses a low optimum growth temperature of 27-280C.

Since the highlands or hills of the southwestern mixed cropping zone are major potato producing areas in China, the rapid increase in the presence of race 3 has become a challenging problem for potato production in these areas.

Although race 3 has spread into the northern single cropping zone, the most important potato producing zone in China, the bacterial wilt there is not severe so far.

For the control of potato bacterial wilt, integrated management strategies are applied in China. The strategies include avoidance of water flowing in potato fields after heavy rainfall, and prevention of high moisture.

Forecasting Agricultural out put using Space, Agrometeorologyand Land based observations (FASAL)

Econometry

Agro

Meteorology

LandObservations RS, Mod. Re.

TemporalRS, High Re.

Single date

Conventional Remote Sensing

MULTIPLE IN-SEASON FORECAST

Pre-Season

Early-Season

Mid-SeasonState

Pre-HarvestState

Pre-HarvestDistrict

Cropped areaCrop condition

Crop acreage

Crop yield

RevisedIncorporating damage

Research Research &&

DevelopmentDevelopment

Field experiment under R & D

Relationship of temperature, photoperiod and sunshine duration with flowering and seed

production of pansy (Viola tricolor L.) in mid hill zone of Himachal Pradesh

WHITE RUST PREDICTION:

For the first time in India

A “ Weather-Based Thumb Rule”Was Developed to forecast incidence of white rust disease in Brassica.

JAN. 6JAN. 7JAN. 8JAN. 9JAN. 10JAN. 12

Remote sensing

Date of

aphid onset

Simulated date of Aphid onset Observed aphid onsetgrid 25x25 Dateofsowin DATE OF ONSET Dateofsowin Onset date

grid 13 26-Oct-01 7-Jan 15-Oct-01 15-Jangrid 18 26-Oct-01 6-Jan 22-Oct-01 15-Jangrid 19 28-Oct-01 6-Jan 29-Oct-01 15-Jangrid 14 28-Oct-01 6-Jan 5-Nov-01 15-Jangrid 20 25-Oct-01 8-Jan 12-Nov-01 15-Jangrid 12 26-Oct-01 7-Jan 19-Nov-01 15-Jangrid 25 19-Oct-01 10-Jan 26-Nov-01 29-Jangrid 17 26-Oct-01 7-Jan 3-Dec-01 29-Jangrid 15 28-Oct-01 6-Jangrid 27 19-Oct-01 10-Jangrid 30 18-Oct-01 10-Jan

grid 8 27-Oct-01 7-Jangrid 28 20-Oct-01 8-Jangrid 09 25-Oct-01 7-Jangrid 24 22-Oct-01 8-Jangrid 26 13-Oct-01 12-Jangrid 29 18-Oct-01 10-Jangrid 22 24-Oct-01 9-Jangrid 23 20-Oct-01 9-Jangrid 04 29-Oct-01 6-Jangrid 21 21-Oct-01 8-Jangrid 31 19-Oct-01 10-Jangrid 11 24-Oct-01 8-Jangrid 16 26-Oct-01 7-Jangrid 07 23-Oct-01 7-Jangrid 05 26-Oct-01 8-Jangrid 03 21-Oct-01 9-Jangrid 10 28-Oct-01 7-Jan

Rainfed-No Mulch Rainfed-BPM

CPE25-No Mulch CPE25-BPM

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT: TO ACHIEVE FOOD, NUTRITION, ENVIRONMENTAL

SECURITY AND COMBATING DROUGHT

1. Pressure for obtaining food from limited lands

2. To reduce risk factors against natural climatic variability

3. To obtain yield certainty and creates water harvesting potential.

4. To ensures food, nutrition and environmental security

5. To check labour migration & regulate labour requirements.

6. To obtain assured return during lean period .

7. To minimizes effects of biotic stress like weed, pest and diseases.

8. To sustain soil fertility

R&D Models used in AAS• Crop weather model – DSSAT / EPIC• Pest and Disease forecast Models

Eg: Grapes downy mildew, Paddy blast, Groundnut – Rust and Leaf spot

• Specific experiments for assessing the economic impact in selected crops Crop weathermodel – DSSAT / EPIC

Agrometeorological Research in ICAR•Agrometeorological research were initiated under ICAR in mid 60s at CAZRI, Jodhpur and IARI, New Delhi .

•Post Graduate teaching in Agrometeorology started at IARI, New Delhi .

•As per National Commission of Agriculture (1976), Departments ofAgrometeorology started functioning at few State Agricultural Universities.

•The All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) started functioning at CRIDA, Hyderabad from 1983. Initially started with 12 cooperating centres during VII plan period (1985) and later extended to 13 more centres in VIII plan period covering all SAUs in the country.

•All the 25 centers of AICRPAM are issuing weather based agro advisories since 1994.

•Many ICAR institutes now carrying research on agro meteorological impacts on crops, livestock, horticulture etc.

Probabilistic weather forecasts to predict crop failure (India)

The use of GLAM within a probabilistic framework is explored. General Circulation Models (GCMs) can be used to predict weather and climate months in advance by creating an ensemble of simulations. Each simulation has slightly different initial conditions and over a sufficiently long time period (two weeks and above) the results of each simulation can differ greatly.Since all of the initial conditions used are plausible, and within observational uncertainty, the ensembles contain probabilistic information.

Response of plant growth to surface water balance during a summer dry period in Central Eurasian steppe (Kazakhstan)

In order to evaluate the impact of hydro-climatic conditions on the local surface energy balance and plant growth on seasonal and annual time scales, inter-seasonal measurements of the surface energy balance components and plant biomass were conducted since 2002 at natural grassland in north part of Kazakhstan. It was focused on the responses of evapotranspiration and above- and below-ground biomasses to soil moisture content, during the development of a summer dry period.It was found that during dry period, the assimilation of plants could not sustain above-ground alive biomass, but a major portion of the assimilation was allocated to the below-ground biomass.

CommunicationCommunication&&

DisseminationDissemination

AgroMetAgroMet AdvisoriesAdvisoriesover Radio & TVover Radio & TV

Modes Of CommunicationAIR

Local Television Network

Dailies

TNAU Website

COMMUNICATION FORMAT OF AGROMETEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION IN RA II

Document, Video, Audio, Digital Methods of DeliveryMail, Broadcast, Phone, Facsimile, Network, Human Combined ClassificationDocument based:- bulletins, brochures, letters, notes, othersMedia-based:-radio, TV-public, CATV, satelliteJournal:- newspaper-general, agricultureMagazine:- monthly, quarterly others, scientific journal, othersTelecommunication based:-phone, fax, mobile phone, othersComputer Network based:-PC-network, Internet-web, ftp, gopher,e-mail, othersDigital File based:-CD, floppy, tape, others

/ Websites

Rural hubs &call centers

Telecom for AgrometPrint Media/AIR/TVInternet Kisan call Centre

FUTURECommon Service CentreWeather channelCommunity Radio/FM RadioCell Phone – SMS

Every Tuesday and Friday evening at 7:40 Pm

Doordarshan coverage of AAS bulletins

Awareness Awareness ProgrammeProgramme

Agromet Advisory services

Creating Awareness on AAS

Print media

Rythunestam

DD

Annadata

E-TV

Mass mediaRyhtunestam

Paadipantalu

Andhrajyothi

Eenadu

100000 copies / month

10000 copies / month

All India Radio

Dept. of Agril.

DAATTCs/KVKs

Disaster Management Group

AIR & DD personnel

RCYs/Model farmers

Input dealers

FARMERS

Farmers call centre1100

Sponsored by : Ministry of Earth Science.Organized by: CARD

Co Organized by: The Associated Commerce and Industries of India

Supported by: Govt. of U.P

K

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7

Extension Activities

Visit of students from College of Agriculture, Nagpur

Information about Agro Advisory Bulletin

Training to farmers on Agro meteorology at village Jatlapur

Earth Day Celebration

Jaipur, 2008

Rajasthan

Economic Economic AssessmentAssessment

Network of stations that carried out the Economic Impact study

Economic benefit due to MRF based crop decision making - Coimbatore

Crop : Vegetables (09.01.2008)

Advise given : Present weather is conducive for Heliothis hence watch for the incidence of the pest and take control measure when the pest load crosses the ETL.

Addl. cost : Nil.

Additional return

: Rs. 1200 / ha.

FeedbackFeedback

Feedback from progressive farmers HRS, Pechiparai

Name: Mr.Shanmugapillai, Therroor

Crop: Banana

Feedback: : Leaf spot incidence reduced upto 16%, wilt incidence reduced by 17.2% stem weevil attack reduced by 54.3%

yield increase : 16 %

Name:Meenakshisundaram, Errumpukadu

crop : coconut

Feed back : Timely advise Helped in saving coconut crop from bud rot disease. Disease incidence reduced by 69.3%

Name: Mr.Shenbagasekarapillai, Thoovarancadu

Crop: Paddy

Feedback: Control measure suggested against sheath blight incidence in the

critical stage of the crop reduced the incidence by 62.5%

yield increase : 10.78 %

Future Plan on AAS in India Development of capacity building. Application of remote sensing techniques for AAS. Exploitation of rapid innovation of technologies for the

benefit of agromet service. Development of crop weather models for AAS. Generation of advisories for new areas (Horticultural

Crops, Livestock, Fisheries, Wasteland and Forest Fires, Post Harvest and Storage.

Arrangement of special programmes for popularization of service.

Provision of adequate training for the end-users. Launching of comprehensive programme on R & D

activities on operational agrometeorology and economic assessment.

Comments and suggestions to improveAgrometeorological Products

• Holding of further training workshops and consideration given to short courses in Agricultural Meteorology.• Exchange of data and Agricultural Meteorological knowledge between member countries and also the Inter-Regional exchange of these materials.• Exchanges of experts between member countries as a necessary way to improve the knowledge of Agricultural Meteorology.• Use of Meteorological forecasts and short- and long-term Agricultural Meteorological recommendations should be included in specialized bulletins for further notice.• Performance of joint research between member countries to solve common problems considering Agricultural Meteorological affairs.• Use of GIS and Modeling of Joint Training should be considered.