In this issue - India Meteorological Department newsletter-Jan-March... · Field trip was also arranged at Gowardhan Dairy farm, Parag milk Ltd. Manchar, Pune. Participants interacted

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It is my great pleasure to inform you all that the Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department, Pune has taken up active initiative to release the first issue of the Newsletter on “Integrated Agromet Advisory Services in the country”. This publication highlights the different activities under this service during January to March 2013 like preparation of Agromet Advisory Service (AAS) bulletins at district, state and national level, dissemination of agromet advisories under multi-mode dissemination channel, awareness programme, popularization programme etc. This bulletin will be released on quarterly basis. I hope the information available on AAS will be useful to those who are involved with this service directly and indirectly. I appreciate the initiative of the Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department, Pune for bringing out the newsletter on Integrated Agromet Advisory Services (IAAS) on regular basis.

Dr. L. S. Rathore

In this issue

Five Tier System in IAAS

Preparation of Agromet Advisory Service Bulletins

Dissemination of Agromet Advisories

Sample Success Stories

Capacity Building Programme

Automation of Agromet Advisory Services

International Cooperation/ Assignments

National Cooperation

Achievements

National Seminar/ Meeting

Awareness Programme

Feed back/ suggestions from farmers

Important Visitors

Participation in International/ National Seminar/Workshop/Meeting

Upcoming International events

International Publications

Address by Director General of Meteorology

Five Tier System in Integrated Agromet Advisory Services (IAAS)

IAAS project is being implemented through five-tier structure in the country to set up different components of the service spectrum. AAS is steered at the level of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and IMD Head Quarter at New Delhi which are responsible for preparing the policies, planning and securing the financial needs of the service. National Head Quarter of AAS set up in IMD, Pune which is the principal executive body for coordinating and organizing AAS in the country. State Agromet Centres (SAMC) located in the Regional Meteorological Centres/ Meteorological Centres in IMD provide district level value-added weather forecast using inputs from Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) centre and synoptic/statistical tools. They are also responsible for generating other technical inputs needed to cater AAS and coordinate the service at state level. Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs) located at State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), institutes of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) and Indian Institutes of Technology prepare and disseminate district level agromet advisory. Agromet Advisory extension and dissemination mechanism is set up at district level with very strong component to continuously assess users’ requirements and collect feedback on the quality and utility of the service. For this District Agriculture office, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and National Informatics Centre (NIC) inter alia and others are involved.

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Preparation of Agromet Advisory Service Bulletins

IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

AAS bulletins are prepared and issued on every Tuesday and Friday at district, state level and at every Friday at national level. At present 593 district level AAS bulletins by AMFUs, 23 state level AAS bulletins by SAMCs and national level AAS bulletin by NAASC, Pune are being prepared. Agromet Advisory Service Bulletins are issued in 12 regional languages. The number of district level bulletins issued from different states is as shown in the figure.

State-wise details for the distribution of the SMS on agromet advisories

Total no. of District Level Agromet Advisory Bulletins issued : 593

Agromet Advisories are being disseminated to the farmers in the above mentioned states through following the multi-channel system; All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan Private TV and radio channels Mobile phones / SMS/IVRS Newspaper Internet Under the Public-Private Parternship (PPP) mode at present 3.4 million farmers are receiving the agromet advisories in SMS/IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) directly through mobile. In addition to that with the joint collaboration with NIC/ATMA/KVK/

NABARD/ Internet a number of AMFUs have started sending of agrome advisories through SMS. Recently AMFU Hissar has started the dissemination of Weather forecast and agromet advisories through Free Weather SMS and voice messages service on mobiles for outreach to the farmers of the Haryana state. The SMS system is efficient for dissemination real time weather based agromet advisory in local language i.e. Hindi. At present, more than sixty thousand farmers, Agricultural Officers, Print/electronic media persons and other stakeholders of the State have registered for getting mobile Weather SMS Service. The registered farmers after receiving the SMS, convey weather information to other farmers of the village. The target of the department is to reach all progressive farmers from each village of Haryana state with the help of Department of Agriculture, Government of Haryana and Krishi Vigyan Kendra. This type of the service will provide more lead time to the farmers so that they can minimize farm losses due to aberrant weather and also increase their farm productivity with efficient use of available agroclimatic resources.

Agromet Advisory Service (AAS) Bulletins (Statewise) in 12 languages

Dissemination of Agromet Advisories

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Sample Success Stories

National Training on “Weather based Agromet Advisories for livestock production and management” Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department organised training programme on “Weather based Agromet Advisories for livestock production and management” from 18th to 23rd February, 2013. 23 participants of the rank of Nodal Officers and Technical Officers from different AMFUs located in different parts of the country attended the training programme. Eminent Scientists and faculty from, IMD, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Mumbai, State Veterinary University,

Veterinary College, Animal Husbandry Department acted as faculties and delivered lectures. The course covered wide range of topics related to weather and livestock management. Field trip was also arranged at Gowardhan Dairy farm, Parag milk Ltd. Manchar, Pune. Participants interacted with the scientists at the institute and understood various process involved in milking and allied activities.

Training-cum-workshop on eAgromet IMD in collaboration with International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad has developed software namely “eAgromet” under the scheme “eAgromet software for automated AAS bulletin preparation” to prepare district level AAS bulletins. It simplifies the preparation of district level AAS bulletin as it acts as an organizing tool for weather forecasts and agromet advisories with the help of repository of past AAS

bulletins. A server has been launched by IIIT for the said purpose. Training cum workshop on eAgromet software was organized for the Principal Nodal Officers and Nodal Officers at ANGRAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad on 20th March 2013. All the participants have been trained to prepare the AAS bulletin using the software with their own sets of data. The participants also appreciated on the usability of the software in reducing the time for the preparation of AAS bulletins. Feedback from the participants has also been collected for further improvement of the software.

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January-March 2013

A farmer in Nekpur village in Bulandshar in the state of Uttar Pradesh was planning to apply fertilizer during September. An SMS text under this service alerted that there would be rains within the next two days, convinced him the time was not right. If he had ignored the message, rain would have washed away all the fertilizer.

Muneshwar Prasad, Nawada in Bihar was informed that low temperature would cause infestation of blight disease in potato and also advised to maintain optimum moisture in the field and spray Mancozeb + Metalaxyl (Redomil-72) @ 1 Kg/acre. As a result productivity was increased to 59 q/acre and there was increase in net income of the order of Rs. 31300/acre

Vikas, a farmer in Nizampur village near Delhi was about to sow carrot seeds, but upon receiving an SMS that heavy rains were coming, he postponed the sowing. Had he not received the message and gone ahead with sowing, he would have lost Rs. 25,000/- and his efforts would have gone to waste .

Capacity Building Programme

Training programme on “Weather based management of Livestock and Poultry” Training programme on “Weather based management of Livestock and Poultry” was conducted from 4-8 March 2013 by AMFU, Madras Veterinary College, Chennai. A total of 25 participants in the cadre of Assistant Professor from Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh participated in this training programme. The training programme included training on various aspects of impacts of weather on livestock, poultry production and health including preparation of weather based advisory bulletin for livestock and agriculture farmers and methods of dissemination of agromet advisory services to increase its outreach to the stake holders.

Automation of Agromet Advisory Services

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Training on “Operational Agrometeorology for serving end users requirement” Agricultural Meteorology Division, IMD, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India in collaboration with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) organised training programme from 28th January to 9th February 2013 on “Operational Agrometeorology for serving end users requirement” for capacity building in the agriculture sector of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS). The training was specially designed for 16 professionals in East African (Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda,

Tanzania) and Asian participants (Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand). The training was conducted at Meteorological Training Institute, IMD, Pashan, Pune, Maharashtra, India. Ideally the training was drawn upon those scientists working in operational Agro-Meteorological Advisory Services and those provide climate/ weather information products and services, i.e. professional staff of National Meteorological and Agrometeorological Services and a range of professionals working on farm management issues where weather and climate data are relevant.

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IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

International Cooperation/ Assignments

Consultation meeting on “Operational Agrometeorological Services in SAARC and other countries of RA II Region” World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Geneva and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Dhaka, Bangladesh and IMD have taken initiative to strengthen the agromet advisory services in RA II region. As a part of the initiative “Consultation meeting on Operational Agrometeorological Services in SAARC and other countries of RA II Region” was organised during 20-21st April, 2012. In depth discussion was made to share the ideas and understanding of AAS among the agrometeorologists from SAARC and non-SAARC countries in the RA-II region which would ultimately boost the a gricultural activities and also benefit the countries. Extensive discussion was made to effectively integrate the skills of operational, experimental and theoretical aspects of agricultural meteorology and their possible development for the purpose of making the agricultural production system in the country in general more robust.

Scaling Up Climate Services for Farmers in Africa and South Asia. In collaboration with CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), US Agency for International Development (USAID), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Climate Services Partnership (CSP) and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society. IMD has started working on ‘Scaling Up Climate Services for Farmers in Africa and South Asia”. Under this initiative, it is proposed to capture and share lessons and evidence about how climate information and

advisory services can be used to improve the lives of small farmers, building on examples of good practice in Africa and South Asia, to identify critical gaps in the design, delivery and effective use of climate-related information for risk management among small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, to identify and foster institutional linkages that could address those gaps and to initiate a collective process toward regional roadmaps for strengthening and scaling-up climate information and advisory services for agriculture and food security in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Head, Agrimet Division, Pune has been selected by the Commission of Agricultural Meteorology, World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva as Expert Team Member in Open Programme Area Group (OPAG) on “Strengthening of Agromet Advisory Services & also Coordinator of Expert Group on Agrometeorology, RA II Region.

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IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

National Cooperation

Sixth Annual Review Meeting Under IAAS project, IMD conducts Annual Review Meeting in every year. Sixth Annual Review Meeting was conducted at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh during 21‐23 November, 2012. The main objectives of the Annual Review Meeting was to review the implementation of the IAAS scheme in respect of the quality of the agromet advisories prepared, its dissemination to the farmers, performance of district level medium range weather forecast (DLWF) and ultimately working out the future course of action for the improvement of the AAS system. Important recommendations like accuracy of weather forecast, establishing strong

linkages with dissemination agencies for wider outreach, use of state‐of‐the‐art technology in AAS etc. were made at the end of the meeting for strengthening the service.

Collaboration between National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and IMD Collaboration between NABARD and IMD was started to provide location specific weather forecast and Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) to 50, 000 farmers in Maharashtra through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) to the Farmers Club of NABARD. Under this initiative strong outreach system is being developed by real time dissemination of weather based agromet advisories and setting up operational arrangements for Agromet Advisory Services involving extension and information dissemination agencies.

Collaboration between IMD and Watershed organization trust (WoTR) India Meteorological Department and NGO, ”WoTR are working together for development of a short range weather forecasting models using the inputs generated from automated agromet stations in for generation of block level agromet advisories in 2 specified clusters of 25 villages in Sangamner and Akole Talukas of Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra.

Achievement Poster presentation on “Evaluating the Potential of Kalpana-1 Rainfall Product for Operational Agromet Advisory Services in India” by N. Chattopadhyay, S. Chandras, B. Das and L. S. Rathore was awarded First Prize in the Workshop on “Meteorological Satellite Kalpana: A Decade Service to the Nation organized by Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad.

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AMFU-Diphu, Assam organized an off-campus Farmer Awareness Programme on 21st February, 2013 at Rajapathar village under Diphu subdivision, which was attended by 23 farmers. Dr. A. Roy, chief Scientist, RARS Diphu, Dr. U. Borthakur, Nodal Officer and Ms Chayanika Thakuria, Research Associate of the project attended the programme as resource persons.

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AMFU, Karimganj, Assam organized Farmer Awareness Programme on 25th March 2013. 34 farmers participated in this programme and 5 raingauses were distributed to progressive farmers of the district. Scientists from Assam Agricultural University, Johan, KVK, Karimganj Regional Agrilcultural Research Station spoke in detail about the theme and topic viz., Meteorological Observation & its relevance to farm management, Short and Medium term weather forecasts, weather forecasting terms, drought and flood alerts, seasonal climate patters vis-à-vis cropping systems, Using rainfall records for decision making in cultivar selection, better weather/climate risk management through AAS system. District Agricultural Officer of Karimganj district and Agricultural Development Officers of Cachar and Hailakandi districts expressed views regarding ways and means to improve communication of weather and climate information to farmers. A questionnaire was distributed among the farmers for feedback collection.

National Seminar on ‘Climate Change and Climate Resilient Agriculture” was organised during 18-19 March 2013 at AMFU, Biswanath Chariali, Sonitpur, Assam in collaboration with All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) for Dryland Agriculture, and sponsored by Ministry of Earth Science, Govt. of India. Distinguished scientists of the country presented papers which focussed on climate change, its impacts, strategies to be adopted for its mitigation, need of agro-advisories, crop-growth simulation models and impact of climate change on crop disease interactions.

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January-March 2013

Agromet Field Unit , Department of Agricultural Meteorology CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, Haryana participated in Kisan Mela of CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hissar during 13-14 March 2013. The demonstrations of weather forecast based agro-advisory service and registration of weather SMS service was made for the farmers. More than 4000 farmers were registered for weather SMS service during two days Kisan Mela. Vice Chancellor Dr. K.S. Khokhar launched the SMS Service to the farmers in Haryana.

National Seminar

Awareness Programme Farmer Awareness Programmes

Farmer Awareness Programme was organized by AMFU, Anand, Gujarat at KVK, Dethali, during 1-4 January 2013 . The feedback questionnaire was personally filled from selected farmers on weather based farm management. Feedback on users’ requirement was received on onset of southwest monsoon, heavy rainfall forecast and other extreme events, disease infestation etc.The feedback was analyzed based on percentage value.

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Awareness Programme Farmer Awareness Programmes

AMFU, Kumarakom, Kerala, conducted Farmer Awareness Programme in collaboration with Gandhi Smaragam, an NGO at SN Puram, Al.appuzha district of Kerala on 3rd October 2012. The programme was highlighted mainly the issues of farmers especially in relation to climate variability and agriculture. More than 100 innovative farmers attended the programme. Extensive discussion was made on climate change and Agriculture, importance of Agromet Advisory services in crop productivity.

AMFU, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu was conducted a Farmer’s Awareness Programme on 6th February, 2013 at Thondamuthur, Coimbatore to make better understand the forecast and the advisories to take better farming decisions. Interaction between farmers and the scientist would encourage the group of farmers to learn more and more about the different weather parameters impact on crop growth at different stages.

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January-March 2013

AMFU, Akola, Maharashatra organised Farmer Awarness Programme on 29th March, 2013. Farmers emphasized the need to make aware the farmers regarding weather cycle and adoption of revised strategies to cope with natural changes and to sustain the productivity at farm lavel. Feedback from the farmers indicate that it is indispensable to come together, structure a group and manage the crop and farming system communally so that the severity of uncertain rain can be counter parted by controlling weeds, insects and pests collectively at village or group of village level.

AMFU, Keirei, Sundargarh, Orissa conducted Farmers Awareness Programme 8th March 2013 The programme was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Sri Petrus Toppo, President, Zilla Parishad, Sundargarh Other eminent authorities Smt. Roopa Roshan Sahoo, IAS, Collector& DM, Sundargarh, Sri Sarat Chandra Sahoo, Director, India Meteorology Department, Bhubaneswar were the guests for this programme Sri Sajeeb Kumar Biswasi, Senior Scientist & Technical Officer, Keiri, Sundargarh were also participated in this programme. Around 300 farmers, press & media people, SHG groups and agro-related companies also participated.

AMFU, Khargone, Madhya Pradesh conducted a Farmers Awareness Programme on 30th March 2013 in village Maingaon of block, district Khargone for increasing the awareness among the farmers. Total 56 Farmers actively participated in this programme.

AMFU-Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh conducted the one day Farmers Awareness Programme on 15th March 2013. 130 farmers of different blocks in the districts participated in the programme. Detailed presentation on introduction about IAAS, crop weather relation, different aspects of pest and diseases, selection of crop varieties and farm practices in adverse weather conditions.

AMFU-Bhachau, Gujarat organised Farmers Day on 20th March 2013 on “Effect of Agrometeorology/climatic condition on crop production and efficient use of water” sponsored by SDAU, IMD and SSNNL Gandhinagar at Bhachau in the presence of Hon'ble Vice Chancellor Dr. K Sridharan, DOR SDAU Dr. R. L. Patel, Executive Director SSNNL Pro. R.B. Marvia and ADR SDAU Dr. A.M. Patel. About 400 farmers actively participated in this programme.

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Awareness Programme Participation in Kisan Mela/ Meeting

Agromet Field Unit, Hissar at Department of Agricultural Meteorology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, Haryana was participated in Kisan Mela of CCS Haryana Agricultural University Hissar on 13-14th March 2013 The demonstrations of weather forecast based agro-advisory service and registration of weather SMS service was made for the farmers. More than 4000 farmers were registered for weather SMS service during two days Kisan Mela. Vice Chancellor Dr. K.S. Khokhar launched the SMS Service to the farmers in Haryana.

AMFU, Majhian, West Bengal participated in sub-divisional Krishi Mela on 15-16 January 2013 at Balurghat, West Bengal organized by Department of Agriculture, Balurghat, Govt. of India. Leaflet on Agromet Advisory Services were distributed among the farmers of different blocks under this sub-division and collected mobile numbers of the farmers for sending agromet advisories by SMS.

AMFU-Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Through AAS bulletin, farmers under AMFU-Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu are advised to spray plant protection chemical for blast incidence noticed in rice crop when the relative humidity rise up to 90 percent and minimum temperature falls to 18°C, which helps farmer to increase additional cost of Rs 560/acre which in turn, net return was additional Rs1250/ac compared to non-AAS farmers. For banana crop, farmers are advised to give propping using bamboo sticks when the wind speed is expected to go up to 20 KMPH,. The AAS farmers those who followed the advisory incurred additional cost of Rs 2000/acre wherein additional returns he got was Rs 7000/acre compared to non-AAS farmers. AMFU,Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar Most of the farmers are harvested rabi crop on timely as per advised provided, who are not follow the advisory have losses the colour, spoilage grain. Some mango growing farmers are benefitted through rain harvesting and some are losses or drop the mango fruits through speedy wind. vegetables growing farmers getting additional profit through rain and very happy when easterly wind blowing and getting extra fruits in the plants. AMFU, Sindewahi, Maharashtra SMS Information from the Agri Dept & IAAS unit Sindewahi were useful in saving the Paddy & Lathyrus crop after harvest by Tarpolin covering in field to avoid loss due to rainfall.

IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

AMFU, Faridkot, Punjab has participated in Kisan Mela organized at Punjab Agricultural University Regional Station, Faridkot on 19th March 2013. About 10,000 farmers from different villages of Faridkot, Ferozepur, Moga, Muktsar, Fazilka etc. districts participated in this Kisan Mela. Farmers updated their knowledge by visiting the stalls, organized by different agriculture related departments. Punjab Agricultural University also demonstrated their technologies developed by different departments of the university. Farmers visited the experiments being conducted at Regional Station Faridkot. They also familiarized about information on Agromet Field Unit working at Faridkot. Seed of recently released varieties of different crops was also distributed to the farmers. The experts shared their views with the farmers regarding the different high yielding varieties of crops, production, protection technologies and also highlighted the effect of changing climate on crops.

Farmers’ feedback meeting was organized at AMFU, Rice Research Institute Aduthurai, Tamil Nadu on 22nd February .2013. Fifty farmers from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Trichy and Ariyalur districts participated and gave their feedback for further improvement. Farmers expressed the usefulness of weather forecasting and agromet advisors. They stated that the accuracy of forecast has become improved well than earlier and very much useful for not only saving of inputs like water, fertilizers, pesticides etc. but also protecting the crop from damage by extreme weather. They expressed their overall satisfaction on the use of SMS service.

Feed back/suggestions from farmers

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IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

Dr. C. Chattopadhyay, Director, National Centre for Integrated Pest Management (NCIPM) visited and interacted with the officers of Agrimet Division on the proposed collaboration between IMD and NCIPM on the use of weather data and weather forecasting for pest and disease forewarning on 13th February 2013 at Agrimet Division, Pune.

Dr. P. K. Aggarwal, Regional Programme Leader, South Asia, Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), International Water Management Institute (IWMI), New Delhi visited Agrimet Division and discussed on the aspects and collaboration with IMD on “Climate Smart Village” on 14th February 2013.

An Expert Committee Meeting was organized on 01st March 2013 at Mausam Bhawan, Lodhi Road New Delhi to review and evaluate the progress of two soil moisture project at (i) IIT Roorkee entitled “Satellite data based Fusion approach to develop soil moisture monitoring system in India” and (ii) International Centre for Radio Science (ICRS), Jodhpur entitled, "Determination of Soil moisture over India using Space Borne Passive Microwave Sensors onboard SMOS”. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Dr. J. S. Parihar, OS & Dy. Director, SAC, Ahmedabad in the presence of Dr. L.S. Rathore, DGM, IMD.

Dr. K.K. Singh, Head Agromet attended the meeting on Crop Insurance and Integrated schemes for Farmers’ Income Security (ISFIS) which is the result of mergers of five erstwhile schemes of 11 th five year plan namely National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme (CPIS) and Investment in Debentures of State Land Development Banks (IDSLBs) at Agricultural Ministry, New Delhi during February, 2013.

Dr. A. Kashyapi, Scientist E has been on deputation to Dakha, Bangaladesh for workshop on “Impact pathways for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security programme in South Asia’ from 26th to 28th February 2013 and presented paper entitled ‘Climate change scenario in India- Impact on Agriculture and Food Security’

Dr. N. Chattopadhyay, Head (Agrimet), IMD, Pune and Dr. K. Ghosh, Scientist D attended the conference on “Climate variability and cash crops of Maharashtra” organized by The Energy Research Institute (TERI) held at Niyojan Bhavan, Collector Office Campus, Thane, Maharashtra on 18th January 2013. Dr. N. Chattopadhyay presented a paper on “Integrated Agromet Advisory Service in India” during the meeting.

Shri R. Balasubramanian, Sci. C attended National Symposium on “Climate Change and Indian Agriculture : Slicing down uncertainties” at CRIDA, Hyderabad during 22nd -23rd January 2013 and presented a paper on ‘‘Climate Change and adaptation through Integrated Agromet Advisory Services”.

Shri R. Balasubramanian, Sci.C presented “Agricultural aspects of south west monsoon 2013” in Annual Monsoon Workshop organized by Indian Meteorological Society, Pune Chapter at IITM, Pashan during 19th to 20th February 2013.

Shri. J. P. Sable, S. A., Agrimet Division, IMD, Pune has attended “AGRO-VISION – 2013” Workshops, National Expo & conference as exhibitor from Ministry of Earth Sciences during 24th to 27th January 2013 at Reshimbagh Ground, Nagpur (Maharashtra). Benefits of Agromet Advisory Services of Agrimet Division were explained to farmers, researchers & students.

Participation in International/National Seminar/Workshop/Meeting

Important Visitors

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Published by Agricultural Meteorology Division, India Meteorological Department, Shivajinagar, Pune – 411 005.

Tel. Fax : (020) 25535953 / 25512022 / 25512023 Website : www.imdagrimet.gov.in

Emails : [email protected] and [email protected]

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IAAS-News Quarterly Newsletter Vol. 1, , Number –1

January-March 2013

Case studies on “Dissemination of Agromet Advisory Services on Mobile Phone through Public Private Partnership

Programme” and “Reaching Farming community in India through Farmer Awareness Programmes” by L.S.Rathore, N. Chattopadhyay and K.K.Singh were published in “Climate Exchange”, a joint publication of Tudor Rose, U.K and World Meteorological Organisation, Geneva.

Training course on the Use of Satellite Products for Agrometeorological Applications' will be held in Accra, Ghana, during 10-14 June 2013. The event will be organized by WMO, EUMETSAT, the Ghana Meteorological Agency and the LSA SAF is targeted to experts on agrometeorology of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services, with special attention to the METAGRI OPERATIONAL. Experts from Eastern Africa participating in WMO projects (Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania) to this event.

Planning and Proposal Development Workshop on Climate Services for Farmers, will be organised in Nairobi, Kenya, June 10-14. This event is supported by USAID, through its Climate Change Resilient Development (CCRD) program administered by Engility Corp. It follows up on the workshop on “Scaling Up Climate Services for farmers in Africa and South Asia” (Saly, Senegal, 10-12 December 2012), sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), US Agency for International Development (USAID), UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and Climate Services Partnership (CSP).

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