In session I, eleven presentations were made on the above theme.

Dr. K. Ghosh, IMD Pune briefed about the achievements during 2012-13, strengthening of GKMS,

recent initiatives of GKMS and the future plans. He said that district level agromet advisories for 596

districts were being issued from different AMFUs. He mentioned that block level weather forecast for

342 blocks spread over 37 selected districts (2 each from UP and Haryana) in the country are being

generated on pilot mode considering one district per state. He also mentioned that on an experimental

mode National Agromet Advisory bulletin based on Extended Range Weather Forecast and monthly

forecast have been started in collaboration with IITM, Pune and IIT, Bhubaneswar during Southwest

Monsoon 2013. He informed that IMD in collaboration with Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmed-

abad has started generating and using the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived

from INSAT 3A CCD data. Preparation of maps for Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) on week-

ly, bi-weekly and seasonal basis and aridity anomaly maps on weekly basis for agromet advisories are

being shared with AMFUs. He told that IMD has also in collaboration with IIIT, Hyderabad are gener-

ating software for automation of preparation of advisory bulletin under the scheme “eAgromet software

for automated AAS bulletin preparation”. IMD is developing the software‟s in collaboration with IIT,

Roorkee and ICRS, Jodhpur to generate soil moisture based on RS data for using in AAS. He said that

at present agromet advisory service bulletin are disseminated through SMS mode to 4.7 million farmers

through Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode and kisan portal including 1.72 lakh SMS to farmers,

extension workers and others were sent by AMFUs. He has also mentioned about the special advisory

provided to farmers in Orissa during Phailin cyclone. He informed about the different capacity building

programme carried out to strengthen the GKMS.

Dr. S. K. Roy Bhowmik, IMD, New Delhi mentioned about the various forecast tools and the present

status of the block level forecast through MME technique and WRF model including the progress on

bias removal. He also mentioned about the development strategy of block level forecast. He said that a

prototype procedure including altitude corrections had been developed for getting forecast for all the

districts and blocks in India based upon Gaussian grid output from the T-574 model and list of

6648 blocks in India had been retrieved from Panchayati Raj Ministry website after discuss-

ing with them. He discussed about the different error structures of different weather parameters. He

said that new initiatives would be taken about the meso-scale data assimilation in respect of WRF,

block level forecast system including development of neural network technique to generate bias free

block level 3 days forecasts from WRF outputs, implementation of ENKF GSI with GFS T 574 and

Brief description of the different Technical Sessions of Seventh Annual Review Meeting at Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan

1

Session I: On-going activities under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa

Chairman: Dr.Raji Reddy, ANGRAU, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.

Rapporteur: Shri R. Balasubramanian, IMD, Pune, Maharashtra.

assimilation of new observations.

Dr. Abhilash, IITM, Pune briefed about “Extended Range Weather Forecast for GKMS”. He said that

ESSO-IITM has developed indigenous Ensemble Prediction System (EPS) based on CFSv2. He in-

formed that Hindcast skill for 2001-2010 and forecast for 2011-2012 showed potential for ERF up to 20

days. He informed that for 2013 monsoon ESSO-IITM issued real-time ERF every 5 day, starting from

16th May using CFSv2 and the bias corrected CFS SST forced GFSv2 (GFSbc) at T126 resolution in-

cluding ERF from T382 in delayed mode. He mentioned that onset forecast was issued based on 16th

May initial condition using CFSv2 forecasts alone. He informed that ERPAS website (http://

www.tropmet.res.in/erpas ) has been launched and the forecasts for the current monsoon season were up-

dated at the website every 5 day. He also informed that ERFS are experimentally being used by Agromet

Division, IMD, Pune. He said that research work on generating multi-model ensemble (MME) forecasts

using CFST126, CFST382 and GFSbc are underway and once developed, the MME system would be

implemented for producing extended range forecasts.

Shri R.K. Rai, IIT, Delhi briefed about “Climate prediction and its use in GKMS”. He focused on the

main objective in Extended Range Forecast Systems (ERFS) of the Phase-II. He discussed about the ex-

perimental forecast of 2011, 2012 and 2013. He mentioned the improvement and further development in

the performance of the ERFS with focus on monthly timescale at subdivision level. He also mentioned

about the linkages of monthly/seasonal prediction outputs with the crop models through appropriate

weather generators to improve the agro meteorological advisories for end users. He informed about the

development of ERFS website, data library for better utilization of the ERFS data base, products among

the partner agencies, smooth transfer of outcome of the ERFS project for its possible operationlisation at

India IMD.

Shri R. Balasubramanian, IMD Pune briefed about “Agromet products for GKMS”. He said that timely

availability and appropriate use of the agromet products are vital for preparation of advisories and ulti-

mately for the successful farming operations. He mentioned that a number of products based on satellite

data like NDVI, soil moisture, ET are proposed to be generated for use in GKMS. He discussed about

proposed strategies of generation of products like creation of spatial database (GIS layers), development

of web-GIS based tools for linking of GTS (Global telecommunication satellite) data with GIS including

generation of forecast maps, weather anomaly maps & climatological maps, isohyetal maps. He also in-

formed about the creation of web based form for observation station to provide necessary filed infor-

mation such as crop type, growth stage etc.. He also showed some examples of agromet products of

generation of maps, GIS portal, isohyetal maps, hailstorm etc..

Dr. P.K. Reddy, IIIT, Hyderabad elaborated on “Operationalization of e-Agromet project”. He men-

tioned about the ongoing process of preparation and current status of agromet bulletin. He discussed the

issues on how to capture the weather trend of the predicted week and past weeks, bulletin weather

2

deviation, to comprehend the influence of weather deviation on the crop and other categories, to prepare

the components of agromet bulletin with minimum effort and to ease the process of preparing the agrom-

et bulletin with additional support. He said that improvements would be made based on feedback and in

parallel more research are required for refining eAgromet and content development in respect of horticul-

ture, veterinary and sericulture. He concluded that the eAgromet version 1.1 is available for day-to-day

use in local languages and English.

Dr. Bimal Bhattacharya, Space Application Centre (SAC) Ahmedabad briefed on “Use of present and

future satellite information in GKMS”. He said that SAC would continue the activity of satellite-based

multi-scale agromet product development (algorithm development, calibration, validation etc.). He

informed that pilot projects on “Experimental value-added agro-advisory using spatial products” and

“Preparation of digital atlas of agro-climatic variables” would be started shortly. Further he added that

improvement of representation of land surface processes of weather models and data assimilation of

Indian satellite products for improving weather forecast accuracy at different time-scales would also been

made. Besides, he suggested that sensors for agro-advisory to farmers would be included in future

satellite in consultation with IMD.

Shri K. R. Salve, NABARD, Pune informed that IMD in collaboration with NABARD has already start-

ed a pilot project for dissemination of weather related information and advisory services to farmers

through Farmer‟s Clubs from 10 KVKs in Maharashtra during the year 2012-13 and the project is contin-

ued for the second year 2013-14. He also said that at every quarter the review meeting takes place at the

district level and every half yearly at state level. He further added that through the Farmer‟s Club and 10

KVKs as on date, 50,000 farmers are included in the project and total 7936600 SMSs were sent on vari-

ous subjects such as weather, crop advisory, market etc. He said that feedback from the farmers were

collected and sent to AMFUs for improvement of advisories.

Shri H. R. Saharan, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), Rajasthan highlighted the on-going and

future plan of dissemination of Agro-advisory bulletin through IKSL. Initially, he briefed about IKSL

and then he said that it is an effective approach for creating awareness about weather/ crop advisories and

he discussed the mechanism of architecture and service construction. He said that IKSL has covered 18

states of the country and till now IKSL has delivered over 95,000 voice messages covering a wide

spectrum of areas of interest to farmers. Specific information to focused target groups has also been pro-

vided under this system.

Shri Ajay Shelke, Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR), Pune described on “Scalable plan of the pilot

study of AAS at cluster level in Ahmadnagar district, Maharashtra”. He said that WOTR plays the role

of capacity building and support agency, direct project implementer, service provider and is also in-

volved in networking and advocacy. He mentioned that the localized meteorological information is

3

collected through a network of AWS installed in 51 villages with 29 telemetry linked to WOTR and IMD

servers. He presented number of information regarding the project. These are: 1. Weather information are

being displayed on boards in villages. 2. Training on the use of agromet advisories for villagers are being

provided through the project. 3. Awareness are being created amongst villagers. 4. Farmers field school

and field exposure trips for learning are also organized. He further said that collaboration with IMD and

other knowledge partners would help WOTR to scale up this model to different regions of Maharashtra

as well as in other States.

Shri Nagendra Sharma, Reuter Market Light (RML), Pune said that RML is a pioneer in providing

mobile phone-based agricultural information service across rural India. He also said that RML is provid-

ing 400-600 crops varieties and in 8 regional languages. He mentioned that the advisory received from

AMFUs/IMD are disseminated to the farmers through SMS and RML content which are customized as

per each farmer‟s profile and his crop and additional weather bulletins in case of sudden events. He said

that the advantage of weather forecast is that farmer can plan actions based on forecast, save costs of agri

inputs based on early warnings and increase the confidence in decision making. He also said that through

crop advisory farmer can get higher productivity, enhanced quality of produce and prevents losses due to

pest alerts.

In session II, twelve presentations were made on above theme.

Shri Anup Bajaj, ITC, Jaipur mentioned about the e-Choupal‟s ICT kiosk and its infrastructure with the

proposed linkage of IMD network. Briefly, he told about the importance of agrimet in extension activi-

ties. He informed that apart from information & advisories, IMD link would also be provided to the

farmers to directly visit and get benefitted with their region specific climatic information. He also in-

formed that e-Choupal has benefitted over 93,000 farmers through Agri extension activities like Choupal

Pradahshan Khet.

Dr. R. P. Samui, Former DDGM, Agrimet Division, IMD, Pune mentioned about synoptic method ap-

proach for disease forecasting. He stressed about the different methods of pest and disease forecasting

including statistical approach. He further concluded that incidence of crop pests and diseases are greatly

influenced by weather and crop losses could be reduced substantially by judicious application of pesti-

cides integrated statistical and synoptic approach in deciding the time of application. According to him,

inter agency collaboration is required to know the field level real time pests and diseases information and

crop protection stewardship based on synoptic and statistical approach would minimize the pesticide ap-

plication and maximized crop production.

4

Session II: Proposed activities under GKMS

Chairman: Prof. S. K. Tripathi, IIT, Roorkee, Uttarakhand

Rapporteur: Shri A. K. Baxla, IMD, New Delhi

Dr. A. K. Pal, Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai mentioned about agromet advi-

sory for Inland Fisheries. Briefly, he informed about the academic programmes of CIFE. He mentioned

about the status of Indian fisheries, impact of climate/weather in fisheries and challenges of inland aqua-

culture. He mentioned about the inland fisheries agromet advisories services components in details and

advisory dissemination procedures. He also mentioned about the need for agromet advisory services for

inland fisheries in IMD‟s XIIth Five Year Plan on Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa program.

Dr. Nagaraja Kumar, INCOIS, Hyderabad informed about the ocean observation system and advisory

services. He mentioned about different traditional and scientific techniques for identifying potential zone

of fishing. He also mentioned about the ocean state forecast products like high wave alerts, location spe-

cific forecast, regional forecast etc. He discussed about the different dissemination mechanism and

collaboration with INCOIS for fishery advisory.

Prof. S. K.Samantarai, Satyasai Charitable & Educational Trust, Orissa discussed about the rise in tem-

perature and its affect like flood, ground water depletion, coastal rise etc. He informed that the sea level

rise in the 20th century has been substantially higher than that in the last few thousand years and the

concentration of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are important to maintain the balance in earth

systems.

Dr. AVR Kesava Rao, ICRISAT, Hyderabad mentioned about the status of watershed programme in

India. He also mentioned about the types of watershed, soil and cropping systems in watershed. He dis-

cussed about Bhoochetna scheme and how this scheme is improving the livelihood of farmers and the

different awareness program of watershed. He suggested to select water shed level AAS units in selected

districts and to increase the observational network.

Shri M. K. Poddar, Agricultural Insurance Company of India briefly mentioned about the Agriculture

Insurance Company and Crop Insurance System in India. He informed in detail the weather index crop

insurance particularly the parametric weather based crop insurance products. Besides, he mentioned

about the challenges and solution of weather index insurance basis risk. At end of his presentation, he

elaborated the implication and use of weather data including the new technology like satellite infor-

mation, doppler radar data etc. on weather based crop insurance and also outlined the possible tie-up with

IMD in this regard.

Shri S. Patil, Mahindra and Mahindra, Mumbai said that the main objective of Mahindra and Mahindra

is the dissemination of weather based inputs using ICT to improve productivity, making difference to

farmers lives, achieving scale and replicability. He mentioned that Mahindra and Mahindra would deliv-

er farm technology prosperity through a variety of existing and new agri-initiatives to impact the lives of

farmers. He informed about the Samriddhi-Vision of the company and added about the agronomy exper-

tise, mobile soil testing laboratory and delivery of agromet advisory bulletin through Samriddhi Centre in

collaboration with IMD.

5

Mr. S. Surendran, Reliance Foundation, Mumbai, mentioned about the information services which has

started during February 2012 through Reliance Foundation. He said that bulletins are disseminated

through TV scroll, mobile based voice SMS / text SMS etc. He further said that audio conferences

knowledge quiz, knowledge debates, training programmes are conducted and through knowledge of

wheels problems of farmers are sorted out.

Shri. C. J. Prabhakar, Central Silk Board (CSB), Bangalore mentioned about the spread of sericulture

across the country particularly in West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He

also said that as far as sericulture agromet advisory service is concerned, CSB is looking for crop model-

ling and yield forecast, crop weather studies, preparation of crop weather calendar and development of

weather based pest models for forewarning of the out-break of the pests. He focused on the necessity of

weather based agromet advisories in sericulture and the few benefits of agromet service in sericulture. He

informed that sericulture information linkages and knowledge system (SILKS) is a single window infor-

mation and advisory services system for the planners, administrators and farmers practicing sericulture.

According to him 108 districts across the country are now having dedicated web portal for sericulture. He

mentioned that IMD and CSB are working together on sericulture advisory service and are aiming to

cover atleast 50% of sericulture farmers under the Seri Advisory Services by the end of XIIth FYP.

Shri. Atul Mandale, Kisan Call Centre (KCC), Pune Kisan Call Centre explained that KCC is an ambi-

tious program started by the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development for the empowerment of the

farmers. He informed that the toll free number (18001801551) helps needy farmers, seek any type of in-

formation related to agriculture/animal husbandry/fishery/weather etc. He also said that in Maharashtra,

call attending per day which was 700 numbers has now shot up to 2000 per day. He informed that on

scrutiny of the calls received and answered, it has been observed that between 10,000 to 20,000 calls

have come from the Ahmednagar / Aurangabad / Nanded / Jalna / Jalgoan / Beed / Parbhani / Yeotmal /

Latur / Hingoli / Akola / Washim etc. during May‟12 to Sep‟13 which indicates that high awareness

about KCC are at these centers and some awareness building exercise in other districts could be under-

taken to build more traffic to KCC which would benefit farmers from those regions. He also informed

that between June to Aug 2013 the peak monsoon season KCC has handled 32744 farmer queries re-

lated to monsoon which has helped farmers to know about rain in their area/village, during sowing and

also helped them to get prepared in case of excess rainfall forecast. He added that the queries received at

KCC are attended by the agents but at times certain critical and typical queries are attended by the ex-

perts. He concluded that on weather front they need to train their KCC agents on the new forecast

techniques now available with IMD. He also added that in order to propagate the new and better fore-

cast techniques developed by IMD there is a need to create awareness about this through the press/

electronic and outdoor media which would drive more farmers/fishermen to call KCC to get the latest

update.

6

advisory dissemination. He said that the coverage of community radio is 30 to 35 km radius and there is

regular interaction of District Correspondent working under NABARD-IMD project, with farmers. He

added that technical guidance's are taken from scientists of KVK and the messages are confirmed by the

AMFUs. He informed that more than 8000 farmers are beneficiary through this community radio

services in Akola.

In the session III, eight presentations were made on the above theme.

Shri. R. Balasubramanian, IMD Pune on behalf of Mr. S. Banerjee, CABI explained that the mission of

CABI is to improve people‟s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise

to solve problems in agriculture and the environment. He said that CABI is a not-for-profit organization

established by United Nations treaty-level agreement member countries and it is global leader in agricul-

tural development, agricultural research, infomediary, scientific publishing and bio-services. The pro-

posed framework for dissemination of agromet advisories through CABI Direct2Farm is that IMD scien-

tists would be given access to the Direct2Farm repository, SMS would be pushed to the farmers which

would also inform them that more detailed information is available at the IVR and they can also record

their queries in the IVR. In addition to that, when the farmers record the query, IMD scientists would be

able to listen to them directly by accessing Direct2Farm and then record the answer, which would be for-

warded to the farmers.

In this session DDGMs of six RMC has presented the Value Addition and Verification of District Level

Forecasts.

Dr. Y.E.A. Raj, DDGM, RMC Chennai has presented for the four Southern States i.e. Karnataka, An-

dhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. According to him though some of parameters show good accuracy

but there is need to improve the accuracy of value added forecast in this region particularly on rainfall.

As per his presentation quantitative rainfall forecast is good for Northeast monsoon season for Kerala

during 2012 and moderate for Southwest monsoon season during 2013 for Andhra Pradesh. However,

quality of forecast need to be improved for Southwest monsoon season during 2013 for Kerala. He fur-

ther suggested to increase the resolution of the model for better forecast and grid point data for wind di-

rection / speed and there should be change in methodology for rainfall (dry, light rain, moderate rain,

heavy rain, very heavy rain, and extremely heavy rain). He also said that one can consider the forecast to

be correct if the realised rainfall is within one stage of the forecast.

For RMC New Delhi region, Shri Manmohan Singh, MC Shimla, Shri Surender Paul, MC Chandi-

garh and Shri Sonam Lotus, MC Jammu & Kashmir jointly presented for Northern States i.e New Delhi

7

Session III: Value Addition & Forecast Verification of District level Weather Forecast.

Chairman: Dr. Y.E.A Raj, RMC, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Rapporteur: Shri. Manmohan Singh, MC Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.

Shimla, Punjab and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. In general they mentioned that, the

average accuracy increased by 15-25% and maximum improvement are observed in maximum and mini-

mum temperature and the performance of value addition forecast is better than previous year.

For RMC Guwahati, Shri. Dilip Saha, MC Agartala presented for Northeast India i.e. Assam, Meghala-

ya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. He said that manual value addition to

MME forecasts for all the parameters for all the 5 days in all the districts remains one of the greatest

challenges to the forecasters. He also said the forecast accuracy for Tripura was moderate to good during

SW monsoon 2013 and for other states needs improvement. He added that highly variable weather phe-

nomena due to geographical location & varied topography of the NE region and capturing the sudden

changes in the atmospheric conditions are the greatest challenge. He suggested to develop a model espe-

cially for the NE region incorporating some weightage for the topographical features of the region and

automation of value addition works.

For RMC Nagpur, Dr. D.P. Dubey, MC Bhopal presented for Central India i.e. Madhya Pradesh,

Chhattisgarh and Vidharbha. He showed that the rainfall forecast in all districts was good and 70 - 80%

correct. Results of forecast for maximum temperature was about 70-80% correct and for minimum tem-

perature forecast was about 60 - 90% correct.

For RMC Kolkatta, Dr. D. Pradhan, DDGM, RMC Kolkata presented for Eastern India i.e.West Bengal,

Jharkhand, Bihar and Sikkim. It revealed from his presentation that both the qualitative & quantitative

forecasts are reasonably good in the region and performance of quantitative forecast is good for West

Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and moderate in Odisha and Sikkim. He suggested that more emphasize

should be given on verification of model output with observed rainfall and necessary improvement may

be made in the model if possible. And he also suggested that verification to be done for the districts

where density of observatories is reasonably higher.

For RMC Mumbai, Shri. K.S. Hosalikar, DDGM, RMC Mumbai and Dr. J. Sarkar, MC Ahmedabad

jointly presented for Western India i.e. Maharashtra and Gujarat. They observed the significant improve-

ment in the value added forecast. They suggested to build a dense observing AWS / ARG network for

generation and verification of forecasts. According to Shri. Hosalikar WRF- 9 Km model run at RMC

Mumbai helped to give the better forecast for 3 days as it has shown the satisfactory results to capture the

events of rainfall as well as temperatures in the region. They also suggested for observatory automation

software would generate weekly data base report of realised weather parameters for the required stations.

Shri R.S. Kaim, MoES, New Delhi and Shri B.S. Tyagi, IMD, New Delhi highlighted on grant-in-aid to

AMFUs. They briefed about the payment status and problems being faced by IMD in releasing GIA. Shri

Tyagi mentioned that during this year grant-in-aid for 75 AMFUs were provided and for 14 AMFUs the

amount lying unspent has been carry forwarded for utilization in the current FY 2013-14. He mentioned

8

Session IV: Progress of work at AMFUs

Chairman: Dr. Vyas Pandey, AAU, Anand, Gujarat.

Rapporteur: Dr. K.K. Gill, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab.

that the expenditure has to be signed with seal by the financial authorities of University and audited. He

mentioned that before 31st March UC/SE has to be prepared and the units have to submit the annual pro-

gress report with UC/SE.

In the session IV, eleven presentations were made on the above theme.

Dr. C. Chattopadhyay, National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM), New Delhi briefed

on weather based pest and disease forewarning models. He discussed many issues regarding awareness

among farmers, about different packages and farmers need based IPM models. He also discussed about

the NCIPM website and NISPM for BT cotton. He showed the use of remote sensing in detecting the yel-

low rust severity in wheat during 2013 and web based Decision Support System for rapeseeds mustard.

He also discussed about three priorities and also about the new risks developed due to climate change in

different crops.

Dr. K. Manjappa, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka presented the progress of

work at AMFU Dharwad, Bijapur and Sirsi. He discussed about the performance of agro-advisories

services during the year 2012-13. He emphasized that farmers need more improvement in weather forecast

and currently farmers were benefited mainly in sunflower, pigeon pea crops and animal husbandry. He

added that advisories were made in both the languages and disseminated through different medias to the

farmers but farmers need more accuracy during monsoon season. He raised the issue regarding the

permanency of technical officers appointed in the project.

Shri. M. Reddy, Regional Agricultural Research Station, UAS, Raichur, Karnataka presented the pro-

gress of work at AMFU Raichur and Bidar. He discussed about the advisories issued regularly in both the

languages and even during high rainfall period some specific advisories were also issued. He informed

that farmers want that advisories should reach each and every farmer as they serve as the reference for

their day to day operations. He also said that a 3-5 days training programme are needed for the methodolo-

gy of uploading. He proposed three research projects related to agro-advisories in his presentation.

Dr. D. Raji Reddy, ANGRAU, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, presented the progress of work at AMFUs

Anakapalle, Anantapur, Chintapalli, Hyderabad, Jagtiyal, Lam and Tirupati. He emphasized on the use of

GIS technology in agro-advisories for rainfall monitoring. He also talked about the model farmers to

whom they identified in few villages by generating cultural troops and these troops are getting attention of

people by performing dance and folk songs. He also proposed some research projects related with adapta-

tion strategies for different crops to mitigate climate change.

Shri L. Nagesh, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, presented the progress of

9

work at AMFU Bangalore and Naganhalli. He informed that these AMFUs has covered 10 zones in the

state where advisories are being issued regularly and they have also started sending messages to farmers

through farmers web portal. He said that AMFU has also conducted farmer awareness programme and

raingauges were distributed to selected farmers during the programme and rainfall data are being collect-

ed by the selected farmers.

Dr. S. Sridhara, University of Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences, Shimoga, Karnataka presented the

progress of work at AMFU Shimoga. He discussed about the advisories related to the main crops like

maize, rice and arecanut. He said that they have already conducted awareness programme. He mentioned

that they are already covering information regarding animal husbandry and fisheries in there agro-

advisories. He shared the ideas about the future plan of work on impact of climate change on incidence of

insect pest.

Dr. Ajith Kumar, Kerala Agricultural University, Kerala presented the progress of work at AMFUs

Ambalavayal, Kumarakom, Pillicode, Trissur and Vellayani. He presented the visual media showing in-

formation regarding dissemination of advisories in English and local languages. He said that agro-

advisories are issued by AMFUs including livestock information also. He mentioned that they have good

linkage with Department of Agriculture & Horticulture. He further mentioned that they have 20 lead

farmers acting as climate managers to report weather events, crop situations and to assist in dissemina-

tion of bulletins. He told that feedbacks are taken from farmers in structured ways and in different for-

mats. In addition to this, some case studies were also shown by him. He also pointed out that there are

some problems in farmer portal which are to be rectified for its proper function.

Dr. H.S. Bhadoria, Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Gwalior presented the progress

of work for Western Madhya Pradesh at AMFUs Indore, Jhabua, Khargone, Morena and Sehore. He

mentioned about the information regarding coverage of agro-advisories, dissemination of agro-advisories

and linkages with different KVKs, NGOs etc. He showed the economic impact analysis of advisories for

bajra, moong and mustard crops during the year. He informed that farmer awareness programme were

already conducted and bulletins are regularly uploaded in the website.

Shri R. Balasubramanian IMD, Pune on behalf of Dr. Manish Bhan presented the progress of work at

AMFUs Jabalpur, Tikamgarh, Powerkheda and Chhindwara which covers 22 districts of Madhya Pra-

desh. He said that agromet advisories are communicated to farmers through multimedia. He mentioned

that feedback information are obtained from the farmers by these 4 AMFUs through circulating the ques-

tioner and farmers responded about the use of agromet advisories in deciding the day to day farm opera-

tions. He informed that farmers awareness programme was organized at Bamni, Mandla in March, 2013

to popularize agromet advisories services.

Dr. B. S. Kharbade, Centre of Advanced Faculty Training (CAFT), Pune, Maharashtra presented the

progress of work at AMFUs Pune, Rahuri, Igatpuri and Kolhapur. He talked about 4 zones of the state

10

and explained about the forewarning systems included in agro-advisories and said that bulletins are dis-

seminated to the farmers through different media. He mainly stressed upon forewarning system of pests

and diseases for sugarcane and cotton. He mentioned about the farmer-scientist forum for getting feed-

back regarding the agro-advisories and further added that farmers awareness programme have been

organised at three AMFUs and only one AMFU is left.

Shri D.K. Jajoria, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan

presented the progress of work at AMFU Udaipur. He briefed about the dissemination of agro-

advisories and about the linkages with different organizations. He informed that agro-advisories bulle-

tins already covers animal husbandry. He mentioned that farmer awareness programme has been

conducted and regularly feedback are taken from the farmers. He also discussed about the economic

impact analysis of AAS during the year.

In the session V, eleven presentations were made on the above theme.

Shri P. Jaybhaye, Marathwada Agriculture University, Parbhani, Maharashtra presented the progress

of work at AMFU Parbhani. He said that the AAS bulletins cover all aspects of agriculture, animal

husbandry and fisheries. He added that economic benefits were obtained from time to time in the winter

and next monsoon season. He suggested that the farmers need village level forecasts. He mentioned

about exploring to fund research project on preparation of audio-visual clips on TV channels/ cables

TV.

Shri V.G. Chavan, DR. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeth, Dapoli Maharashtra presented

the progress of work at AMFUs Dapoli and Mulde. He informed that AMFU unit was honoured with

State Level Award at Raigad district during the year 2012-13 for disseminating agromet advisories to

the farmers. He further informed that the bulletin covers animal husbandry (poultry birds), fisheries and

they have also strong linkage with KVK‟s, RHRS/ HRS and NGO‟s and organised various farmers

awareness programme from time to time at different village levels. He said that the advisories were

made in both the languages and disseminated through different media‟s to the farmers but farmers need

more accuracy in weather forecast during monsoon season.

Prof. OPN Calla, ICRS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan briefed on the project of soil moisture using space borne

passive microwave sensors on-board SMOS for the whole country. He presented a report on this pro-

ject. He informed about the L-band for soil moisture estimation. He informed that initially the project

has taken care of nine states for generation of soil moisture during first phase, however during second

phase nineteen states would be considered. He elaborately discussed on validation results of SMOS soil

11

Session V: Progress of work at AMFUs

Chairman: Dr. Senapati, Kakdwip, West Bengal.

Rapporteur: Dr. Parminder Kaur Baweja, Dr YS Parmar, UHF-Nauni, Solan-HP.

moisture data over test sites. He concluded that ICRS team successfully implemented models for retriev-

al of high resolution surface soil moisture maps from satellite data and validated the same with ground

truth measurements for proposed nine project test sites. He further added that a software package was

developed for high resolution soil moisture map generation from satellite data which can be used by IMD

officials to generate high resolution surface soil moisture maps at regional scales in various parts of

country simultaneously.

Dr. S. Wanjari, Dr. PDKV, Akola, Maharashtra presented on the progress of work at AMFUs Akola and

Sindewahi. He discussed about the bi-weekly issuance of agro-advisories to the farmers in both the lan-

guages and the bulletins were disseminated by using multi-mode ways. He also proposed a research pro-

ject on mapping of rainfall variability at village level to mitigate climate change effects.

Shri M.L. Patel, Navsari Agricultural University, Maktampur, Gujarat presented the progress of work at

AMFUs Navsari and Maktampur. He informed that the unit publishes AAS bulletins in English and

Gujarati and there is a strong linkage among all the KVKs, ATMAs, NGOs. He added that feedback from

different farmers were taken and they need 15 days advance agromet advisory services especially on in-

sect / pest diseases.

Prof. Vyas Pandey, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat presented the progress of work at

AMFU Anand and Arnej. He informed that 98 AAS bulletins are issued by Anand and 95 AAS bulletins

are issued by Arnej. He said that bulletins are uploaded in www.imdagrimet.gov.in after using the latest

techniques for tailoring the AASB‟s including NDVI, SPI Maps, Aridity Anomaly Maps and 10-20%

economic benefits were attained through these bulletins. He also informed that SMS services are good

and are linked with more than 10,000 farmers. He further added that monsoon season was elongated

with excess rainfall on occasions which reduced the crop yield of cotton and paddy by 40-50 % and 20-

30% respectively.

Prof M. C. Chopada, Junagarh Agriculture University, Junagarh, Gujarat and presented the progress of

work at AMFUs Junagarh and Targhadia. He said that 101 AAS bulletins were published in both the lan-

guages including livestock information. He informed that three farmer awareness programmes were

organised and 450 farmers were benefitted. He mentioned that AMFU imparted training to technical

staffs and PG students about weather forecasting.

Shri Sevak Das, Saradarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Dantiwada, Gujarat presented

the progress of work at AMFUs Dantiwada and Bhachau. He informed the information regarding cover-

age of agro-advisories, dissemination of agro-advisories and linkages with different KVKs, NGOs etc.

He mentioned that the unit has celebrated the farmers awareness programme and informed that the farm-

ers of the area demanded for 7 days advance weather forecasting.

Shri Vikash Chaudhary, CAZRI, Jodhpur, Rajasthan presented the progress of work at AMFU Jodh-

pur. He said that the unit issued 96 AAS bulletin in both English and Hindi languages and communicated

12

to farmers through multi media. He added that six pages brochure was published this year to create

awareness about the AAS and farmers awareness programme has been conducted.

Dr. S Pasupalak, OUAT, Odisha presented on the progress of work at AMFUs Bhubaneshwar, Bha-

wanipatna, G.Udaigiri, Kieri, Ranital, Similiguda and Mahisapat in an excellent way. He informed that

village weather managers and block weather women were appointed for guidance to village farmers

about weather forecasting and its usefulness. He also informed that they have established the AAS room

in block premises for the dissemination of AAS bulletin and other queries regarding weather forecasts.

He added that advisories are disseminated to 70,000 farmers and other stake holders.

Shri Sanjiv Kumar, Birsa Agricultural University Ranchi, Jharkhand presented the progress of work at

AMFUs Ranchi, Dumka and Darisai. He informed that AAS bulletin covers advisories on livestock and

fisheries besides bulletins are disseminated through multimedia and FM radio station. He further added

that farmer awareness programmes were organized and economic benefits were also evaluated and ani-

mal husbandry and poultry component were also included in the advisories.

In the VI session, eight presentations were made on the above theme.

Shri P. Bobade, RAU, Pusa, Bihar presented the progress of work at AMFUs Pusa, Sabour and

Agwanpur. He said that the unit prepares weather based AABs both in Hindi and English and dissemi-

nates through AIR, other print media and regularly uploaded in websites. He informed that kisan call

centres and climate smart community programme were also used for dissemination including IKSL and

the feedback was also collected by the centre to evaluate the services. He added that 91-93 % farmers

rated services good to very good. Awareness programmes were organised and economic impact was also

assessed crop wise which showed benefit due to AAS.

Shri Ranjit Kumar, Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur, Chhattisgarh presented the progress

of work at AMFUs Raipur, Ambikapur and Jagdalpur. He informed that the agromet advisories are dis-

seminated through newspaper, TV and SMS. He said that economic impact assessed showed benefit of

the service and awareness programmes were organised at all three centres.

Dr. N. K. Satyamoorthy, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu presented the progress of work at AMFUs

Aduthurai, Coimbatore, Kovilpatti, Karaikal, Pechiparai and Ooty. He informed that the unit covers sev-

en agro-climatic zones of the state and during the current year 104 bulletins were prepared. Also due to

the deficient rainfall in North East monsoon during 2013 loss to the crop was reported particularly cotton

crop was worst affected. He has also said that the advisories were issued specifically for lack of rains

suggesting some chemical spray to with stand drought condition He added that the bulletins were

13

Session VI: Progress of work at AMFUs

Chairman: Dr.R. Bhagwati , NEH , Basar.

Rapporteur: Dr Ranbir Singh Rana, CSKHPKV, Palampur.

published both in Tamil & English and disseminated through all media including Nokia SMS services

and about 43 thousand to 55 lakhs SMS in different districts were delivered to farmers. He further added

that farmer awareness programmes were organized and economic benefits were also evaluated and ani-

mal husbandry and poultry component were also included in the advisories.

Dr. R. P. Senthil Kumar, TNAUVAS University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu presented the progress of work at

AMFUs Chennai and Namakkal. He informed that the centres under TVAS cover 11 districts and the ad-

visories on livestock, poultry and fisheries are issued regularly. He said that the AAS bulletins are dis-

seminated through newspaper and other communication media. He also informed that the university pro-

posed to establish its own radio centre at Namakkal which would be used for AAS disseminations. He

added that the economic benefits to the tune of 3000 to 20000 per acre were observed in some of the case

studies. He further added that the awareness camps were organized and the project proposal to augment

the AAS was also submitted.

Dr. Prashant Neog, Sonitpur, AAU, Assam presented the progress of work at AMFUs Diphu, Gossaiga-

on, Jorhat, Karimganj, Shillongani and Sonitpur. He informed that the weather based AABs were pub-

lished in English and disseminated through KVK, ATMA and other TV and print media. He said that the

NICRA village was adopted to evaluate the service and feedback was collected and awareness pro-

grammes were also organized. He added that the centre showed economic benefit from the fisheries sec-

tor using local package & practices suitable for that region.

Dr. Shibani Chowdhury, Kakdwip, BCKV, West Bengal presented the progress of work at AMFUs

Kakdwip and Kalyani. She highlighted the benefit of the services for aman and boro rice mainly through

insect pests and agronomic management component of AAB. She mentioned that bulletins were pub-

lished in English & Bengali. She said that due to poor connectivity of the internet services, SMS delivery

were hampered and are managed by the personal sources. She presented benefit of the agro-advisory in

all crops. She further said that livestock & poultry components are included in the AAB and more than

42000 SMS are delivered to the farmers.

Dr. R. K. Singh, ICAR, Barapani, Meghalaya presented the progress of work at AMFU Barapani

(Umiam). He highlighted those crops in Garo hills that were affected due to above normal rainfall during

July & August 2013 and agro-advisories were issued to manage the crops under such situations. He also

highlighted the lack of manpower in the centre which hampered work of the project. He mentioned about

the poor connectivity and requested to provide data card to augment the dissemination of the bulletins

through SMS. He added that the bulletins were prepared in English and uploaded regularly in the IMD

and institute websites. He also said that timely sowing, fertilizer applications and pest management in the

AAB showed economic benefit.

Dr. R. Bhagwati, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Arunachal Pradesh presented the progress

of work at AMFU Basar. He informed that the centre alone caters 17 districts of the state and highlighted

14

the difficulty in management. He has requested to open one more centre or to provide more manpower

for AAS services. He mentioned that customized weather based agro-advisories for different sectors to

the farmers were more beneficial. He said that 92 AAS bulletins were issued in English and delivered to

the farmers through communication media. He also said that the DG, ICAR during his visit declared

ICAR e-livelihood award for their work for the centre. He further mentioned that heavy rainfall during

2013 showed damaged to the crops and accordingly the agro-advisory were issued to manage the crops

which gave economic benefit to farmers.

In the VII session, ten presentations were made on the above theme.

Dr. D. Daschaudhari, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Tripura presented the progress of

work at AMFU Lembuchera. He informed that the bulletin was prepared in the English only and SMS

were sent to more than 6500 farmers in Bengali & English covering all districts. He also informed that

newspapers publish only those advisory which includes the extreme events only. He said that four aware-

ness programmes were organized by this AMFU. He concluded that in future they are planning to

conduct farmer‟s field school to assist farmers in day to day activities.

Ms. Nomita, ICAR, Imphal, Manipur presented the progress of work at AMFU Imphal. She informed

that the farmers are satisfied by this service. She said that the SMS are sent by the kisan portal and bulle-

tin includes the advisories on animal husbandry and fisheries. She informed that the rainfall forecast has

improved but still there is need for the more accuracy. She also informed that for this centre one trained

observer should be appointed to carry out the on-going activities smoothly. Chairman of this session sug-

gested that economic impact should also be done for the improvement of the advisories.

Ms. I. Walling, ICAR, Nagaland, presented the progress of work at AMFU Jharnapani. She informed

that farmers are more concerned with the forecast on rainfall, pest and diseases. She said that farmer

awareness programme was conducted by this centre. She mentioned that bulletins are disseminated

through different mass media like doordarshan, AIR, email, SMS (through private company- Pacific

Technologies in collaboration with KVK Dimapur), fax etc. She added that micro-level information for

web portal for eight districts of Nagaland have already been completed and remaining is in process. She

highlighted that some research was initiated on correlation of paddy disease with weather parameters.

Prof. B.C. Sharma, Sher-E-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Chattha,

Jammu presented the progress of work at AMFUs Jammu and Rajouri. He informed that eight awareness

programmes were organised and 1200 farmers attend these programme. He highlighted that farmers were

benefited by these advisory by saving the irrigation in the kharif as well as rabi seasons. He informed

15

Session VII: Progress of work at AMFUs

Chairman: Dr. H.S. Kushwaha, GBPUAT, Pant Nagar, Uttarakhand

Rapporteur: Dr. (Mrs.) Ananta Vashisth, IARI, New Delhi

that during kharif season bulletin was prepared only in English.

Dr. (Mrs.) A. Vashisth, IARI, New Delhi, presented the progress of work at AMFU New Delhi. She

informed that the advisory was found quite satisfactory to the farmers and as far as the forecast is con-

cerned , monsoon rainfall forecast needs more improvement. She highlighted that farmers suggested that

forecast for extreme events should be given to farmers in advance so that they could save their crops by

closing proper crop management in time. She showed the economic impact on rice, wheat and carrot

crop. She also informed that Kisan ghoshti was conducted by this centre.

Prof. H.S. Kushwaha, Govind Ballabh Pant University Of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand,

presented the progress of work at AMFU Pantnagar. He informed that upto last year bulletin were

prepared only Tuesday but from 8th April, 2013 onward, the bulletin was prepared on Friday also. He also

informed the advisory were published on every Wednesday in the Hindi local newspaper and farmers are

quite satisfied from this service. He showed the economic impact of the rice crop during kharif season

and wheat on the rabi season.

Dr. S.K. Tripathi, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand presented the progress of work at AMFU Roorkee. He

informed that bulletin were prepared both in English as well Hindi and also sent weekly to the farmers

meet so that more number of farmers were benefited and farmers gave rating for this services as one of

the best. He also informed that this year wheat sowing is late due to late harvesting of sugarcane.

Dr. M. Tripathi, Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh presented the progress of

work at AMFU Allahabad. He informed that advisories were prepared keeping in view of the crop sensi-

tivity. He said that this centre has actively participated in the kisan melas and advisories were sent to the

Hindi local newspaper for publication.

Dr. D. Swain, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal presented the progress of work at AMFU Kharagpur. He

informed that farmers need the forecast for extreme events such as hail, thunder, drought etc. and also

regarding biotic and abiotic stress resistant varieties. He highlighted that some sensor of the Agro-AWS

is not working. He said that farmers awareness programme as well as economic impact was done by this

centre.

Mrs. Nancy Annabel, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai presented on “Role of Village

Knowledge Centres (VKCs) and Village Resource Centres (VRCs) in Agromet Advisory Services”. She

said that MSSRF is a National Level Hub. There are 17 Village Resource Centres & 73 Village

Knowledge Centres in Tamil Nadu, Pudhucherry, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Odisha which dissem-

inate meteorological information to the farmers. She discussed about the approach and method of

MSSRF especially for the service of the farmers. She said that the main focus of the organization is to

enhance food and livelihood security, decision making support system – demand driven locale specific &

timely info system.

16

Session VIII: Progress of work at AMFUs

Chairman: Dr. Devendra Pradhan, DDGM RMC Kolkatta

Rapporteur: Dr. Ajith K, Kerala Agricultural University

In the VIII session, seven presentations were made on the above theme.

Dr. Dharmendra Singh, IIT, Roorkee briefed on “Satellite based Fusion Approach to develop soil mois-

ture monitoring system in India”. He presented the technique of soil moisture estimation using satellite

data. He explained about the problems in soil moisture retrieval, need of fusion in satellite data, algo-

rithm development and implementation of algorithm. He said that most of empirical model consider only

surface scattering. He highlighted that in pulses image classification the accuracy is 86%. He added that

soil moisture is estimated through derived empirical relationship. He concluded that the study demon-

strates the capability of using SAR and optical data to retrieve the soil moisture and moistly rely on the

parameter of the SAR and optical data.

Dr. Rajvir Singh C.S.A. University of Agriculture & Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh presented the

progress report at AMFU Kanpur. He presented the content of bulletin and dissemination mechanisms of

agromet advisories. He highlighted the extreme weather parameters condition at the station and the

climatic observations were presented in detail. He said that bulletins were disseminated in active collabo-

ration with district magistrate, CDO, PWD executive engineer and State Agricultural Department. He

informed that excess rainfall forecasted during South-West monsoon season helped farmers to save

money. He also informed that they have future plans to make a forewarning model for pest and disease in

relation to weather.

Dr. Manoj Kumar Yadav, BHU, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh presented the progress report at AMFU Vara-

nasi. He explained the mode of preparation of bulletins in English as well as regional languages. He said

that GIS and Remote Sensing techniques are being used and mode of dissemination are done through

newspapers, linkages with ATMA, website of IMD and SMS portal.

Dr. (Mrs.) K.K. Gill, PAU, Ludhiana, Punjab, presented the progress of AMFUs Ludhiana, Bhatinda,

Faridkot, Gurudaspur, Kandi. She presented significant climatic variability in Punjab. She mentioned that

bulletins are prepared in English and Punjabi. She informed that mode of dissemination are used effec-

tively and linkages are with KVK, ATMA and state department. She said that farmers require more accu-

racy and advance weather forecast. She also informed that kisan melas and roving seminars were ar-

ranged for farmer scientist interaction. She remarked that quality and time of forecast received from MC,

Chandigarh is good. She requested for posting of meteorological observes in their each centre.

Dr. Ram Niwas, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, Haryana, presented the progress of

AMFUs Hissar and Kaul. He remarked that they have started SMS programme event in 2009. They made

a portal where the farmer can register to get SMS and at present they are sending SMS to 75000 farmers.

He informed that AAS bulletins are prepared in Hindi and English based on sensitivity of crops and

17

dissemination are through AIR, newspapers, TV, SMS portal. He also informed that during 2011-13

more than 25 lakh web based SMS were send. He highlighted that feedback from farmers and other

stakeholders of farming community is possible through the web page which they have started and

received from 8000 farmers. He mentioned that they have future plans to install kiosk at district

headquarters and bus stand. He also informed that interactive voice response system is in the pipe-line.

He remarked that synoptic charts may be sent to AMFU and password for downloading data from AWS

should be provided.

Dr. R. S. Rana, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, Hima-

chal Pradesh presented the progress of AMFU Palampur. He informed that bulletins cover almost all

crops grown in the area including livestock and poultry and they have built linkage with ATMA. He in-

formed that they are sending more than 17000 SMS and the farmers rated transplanting information accu-

racy as 96%. He remarked that farmers made economic benefits in fisheries, poultry and in milch ani-

mals. He also informed that pamphlets in Hindi and tools for AAS were also prepared and distributed to

farmers. He informed that GIS and remote sensing information are used in bulletins.

Dr. P.K. Baweja, Dr.Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan, Himachal Pradesh,

presented the progress of AMFU Solan. She informed that they are using synoptic charts in addition to

forecast from IMD for preparing bulletins. She informed that dissemination are done through portal,

SMS, newspapers etc. She mentioned that linkage with all line department was strong. She also informed

that they have plans to install electronic display boards at all the stations which work on GSM interface

and to start seasonal awareness programmes, climate managers etc. She added that farmers demanded to

get information on wind dissection, predication of weather anomalies. She further added that there is

need of special training to tackle abnormal events and help book for crop management under charging

climatic conditions. She remarked that the quality of weather forecast was very good.

18