Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective

Abstract

The All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) was initiated in 1983 to utilize the climatic resource potential for better agricultural planning, enhanced productivity, profitability and sustainable livelihoods. The project has generated valuable research output in the areas of agroclimatic characterization, crop-weather relationship and weather effects on pests and diseases. Such information has been used for developing crop weather calendars, agroclimatic atlases, decision support systems, android apps, software for agromet data analysis, weather-based pest forewarning models, weather triggers for crop insurance etc. These products are being used for preparing agromet advisories and weather-related risk management systems. AICRPAM has completed forty years of its very meaningful existence with significant achievements and recommendations of practical value for the benefit of various stakeholders, particularly farmers. However, in view of the increase in intensity and frequency of the extreme weather events such as heat and cold waves, floods and droughts etc. under changing climatic conditions, the coordinated project envisages characterizing and identifying the hotspots, to minimize risks in crop production.

Full text

Agrometeorology is a multi-disciplinary science,
concerned with all the physical and dynamic processes associated with
the crop growing environment. Its primary objective is to discover
and define such effects, and thus to apply scientific knowledge
of the weather and climate to operational use towards sustainable
development of agricultural production. Despite the technological
advances that has taken place so far in Indian agriculture, the inter-
annual variation in food production has remained in consonance
with the weather variability. The ever-increasing extreme weather
events like extended dry spells, heatwaves, one-day extreme rain
events, hailstorms (Bal and Minhas, 2017, Rao et al., 2014)) have
become a real concern for all of us. The heat wave 2022 in India
(Bal et al., 2022a) and other parts of the globe, has impacted the
rabi season crops significantly and have necessitated the need to
strengthening the application of agrometeorological knowledge
towards tactical decision-making to minimize the crop loss.
HISTORY OF AGROMETEOROLOGY IN INDIA
The first decade of the 20th century saw the development
of agricultural meteorology as a field of study in the nation. At the
Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) at Pusa, Bihar, which is the
progenitor to the current Indian Agricultural Research Institute,
IARI, New Delhi, measurements of soil temperatures, soil gases,
soil moisture, and evaporation from water surface have been a
focus since 1905. Since the formation of a division in the Pune
meteorological offices in the 1930s, it has gained momentum.
Research, training, and extension efforts in agrometeorology got
developed during the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of
postgraduate study, the launch of a coordinated research program,
and weather-based agro-advisory services encompassing various
regions of the nation.
Under the guidance of the India Meteorological
Department, a number of agricultural meteorological observatories
were built as part of the All India Crop Weather Scheme, which was
first implemented in the 1940s at state agricultural research stations
and experimental farms. At several AGROMET stations, lysimeter
stations were set up in the 1970s to monitor evapotranspiration from
crops, and actual evapotranspiration from major crops was recorded.
Invited Articles (Silver Jublee Publication)
Journal of Agrometeorology
ISSN : 0972-1665 (print), 2583-2980 (online)
Vol. No. 25 (2) : 215 - 223 (June- 2023)
DOI : https://doi.org/10.54386/jam.v25i2.2128
https://journal.agrimetassociation.org/index.php/jam
The All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) was initiated in 1983 to utilize the climatic resource potential
for better agricultural planning, enhanced productivity, profitability and sustainable livelihoods. The project has generated valuable research
output in the areas of agroclimatic characterization, crop-weather relationship and weather effects on pests and diseases. Such information
has been used for developing crop weather calendars, agroclimatic atlases, decision support systems, android apps, software for agromet data
analysis, weather-based pest forewarning models, weather triggers for crop insurance etc. These products are being used for preparing agromet
advisories and weather-related risk management systems. AICRPAM has completed forty years of its very meaningful existence with significant
achievements and recommendations of practical value for the benefit of various stakeholders, particularly farmers. However, in view of the
increase in intensity and frequency of the extreme weather events such as heat and cold waves, floods and droughts etc. under changing climatic
conditions, the coordinated project envisages characterizing and identifying the hotspots, to minimize risks in crop production.
Key words: AICRPAM, weather, climate, crop, pest, agromet-advisory, DSS
ABSTRACT
SANTANU KUMAR BAL1, M.A. SARATH CHANDRAN1,*, A.V. M. SUBBA RAO1, N. MANIKANDAN1 and
B.V. RAMANA RAO2
1ICAR – Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500059, Telangana, India
2Former Project Coordinator, AICRPAM, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad 500059, Telangana, India
*Corresponding author’s e-mail: ma.sarath@icar.gov.in
Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective
Article info - DOI: https://doi.org/10.54386/jam.v25i2.2128
Received: 13 February 2023; Accepted: 18 March 2023; Published online : 25 May 2023
“This work is licensed under Creative Common Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) © Author (s)”

216 June 2023
At 83 centres of the former NARP program of ICAR located
throughout the various agroclimatic areas, the Agro Advisory Service
Units (AASU) program was launched in the early 1990s for the
dissemination of medium range weather forecast from the National
Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (NCMRWF). The Agro
Advisory Service Units (AASU) at the State Agricultural University
Research Centers generate weather-related agro-advisories based on
the MRWF received twice a week for distribution to the farming
community through various communication platforms. One
noteworthy aspect is that several of the agromet observatories are
shared by the various initiatives described above, preventing effort
duplication. In order to maintain and run the agromet observatories
on a daily basis, close cooperation is required between the various
entities involved.
After realizing the significance of the subject Agricultural
Meteorology and expanding research, teaching, and extension
activities in this field, Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
Govt. of India approved the establishment of Dept. of Agricultural
Meteorology in State Agricultural Universities in the 1980s. It was
designed to promote the development of human resources, organize
various postgraduate in-service training programs, launch weather-
based agricultural advisory services for farmers, and create an All
India Coordinated Scheme on Agrometeorology, serving the various
agroclimatic regions of the nation.
START OF COORDINATED PROGRAM FOR RESEARCH
ON AGROMETEOROLOGY
In the year 1983, Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
Govt. of India started the All India Coordinated Research Project on
Agrometeorology (AICRPAM), with Hyderabad as the head quarter,
to initiate coordinated research on various agrometeorological
aspects to understand the relationships between weather and crop
production systems. The project was started with 10 cooperating
centers and later 13 more centers were added. Initially, AICRPAM
had eight thrust areas of research viz., agromet data base
management, agroclimatic characterization, characterization of
crop growing environments, microclimatology of crops, spatial
dynamics of insect pests and diseases, water production functions,
crop weather modelling and agromet advisory services.
As there was shortage of trained manpower at the
beginning of the project, an Indo-US Project on Strengthening
Agrometeorological Research in India with US aid of 1.6 million
dollars was taken up during 1989 to 1993. Under this project 16
Indian Scientists were trained in reputed US Universities for a period
of six months each. In addition, 8 in-service training programs of
3 to 4 weeks duration on each of the thrust areas identified were
organized in India for about 30 scientists each inviting the US
Scientists. Further, all the cooperating centres were equipped with
essential equipment for collection of data from field experiments.
Hands on training programs on use of computers for data base
management and analysis of agrometeorological data were also
conducted. The Indo US project laid firm foundation for organizing
research in a systematic manner at the ten cooperating centres of
the project initially created. The ICAR after having convinced
with the initial beginning made by the project decided to establish
cooperating centres of the project in all the 25 SAUs existing at the
time of 8th plan (Fig. 1) (Rao et al., 2010). At present, AICRPAM
undertakes research and extension work on five themes viz.,
agroclimatic characterization, crop-weather relationships, crop
growth modelling, weather effects on pests and diseases and
agromet advisory services.
AICRPAM has conducted extensive agroclimatic
characterization of the states where its cooperating centres are
working and has come out with agroclimatic atlases. Crop-weather
relationships were quantified by all the cooperating centers and
are being published as agrometeorology of respective crops.
AICRPAM has also improved IMD’s crop weather calendar by
adding more components to it viz., standard meteorological week-
wise optimum range of weather parameters for obtaining higher
yield and conducive range of weather parameters for incidence of
pests and diseases. Further, the project has developed ‘Dynamic
Crop Weather Calendar’, a software which guide for favourable
sowing and irrigation decisions based on soil moisture dynamics
based on historical, real-time and forecast weather. The DCWC is
proposed to be linked to the Decision Support System (DSS) of
India Meteorological Department (IMD) for automation of agromet
advisory services (Vijaya Kumar et al., 2021). Under crop growth
modelling, location and crop-specific genetic coefficients are being
calibrated and validated for various crops and impact of projected
climate was assessed using crop simulation models like DSSAT and
Info-Crop. Location-specific thumb rules are being developed for
fore-warning of pest/disease incidence. In collaboration with IMD,
AICRPAM is also issuing National Agromet Advisory Services’
bulletin (NAAS) based on Extended Range Weather Forecast
(ERFS) on every Friday.
Fig. 1: AICRP on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) network in India
Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective

217Vol. 25 No. 2
LONG-TERM COORDINATED RESEARCH AND MAJOR
ACHIEVEMENTS
Long-term weather data was collected by the cooperating
centers from the local observatories, district level weather data from
IMD for analysis of climate, crop weather relations, crop simulation
modeling, crop-pest weather analysis and also providing necessary
research backstopping to IMD, since the year 1989 for the success
of Agromet advisories under NCMRWF through 127 Agro-Met
Field Units (AMFUs).
Agroclimatic characterization
Agroclimatic analysis of a location helps in identifying
the variable characteristics of various weather parameters namely
rainfall, minimum and maximum temperatures, humidity both in
morning and evening, wind speed and direction, sun shine hours
and solar radiation, soil moisture and length of growing period etc.
and their impact on the local major crops, horticulture, livestock etc.
Under this theme, Agro-met databank was established
during the year 1998 as a repository of weather and crop data
collected from ICAR institutes, IMD and SAUs. The data was quality
checked and a database was developed. This data was supplied
to the researchers of different ICAR-Institutes/ organizations,
State Agricultural universities, Government organizations etc. on
request and also analyzed for characterization of crop growing
environments. During the year 2001, The crop weather outlook
website (www.cropweatheroutlook.in) was developed to cater
the needs of the AICRPAM centers for dissemination of AAS
benefitting stakeholders viz., researchers, extension workers, line
department personnel and farmers etc.
Agro-climatic characterization of different zones, regions
and states have been analyzed by using long term-weather data by
all 25 AICRPAM centers for their respective states / jurisdiction
areas. This analysis includes the rainfall occurrence in a location on
weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual basis along with distribution,
variation, long term trends, periodicities. Further, meteorological
and agricultural droughts, climatic water balance studies,
evaporation and soil moisture variability, length of growing period
were calculated and reported. The project evolved characterization
of agricultural droughts in dry farming regions and documented
principles and practices for management of agricultural droughts
after the Country experienced severe drought in many parts of the
country during the year 1987. Characterization of crop growing
environments for several crops including mustard, groundnut,
chickpea, pigeon pea etc. to identify the favorable environments
for achieving high productivity with low variability in the yields in
different parts of the country were undertaken. The most favorable
weather conditions contributing to higher yields of the crops were
also determined.
The research continued further to look at agroclimatic
onset of crop growing season, Dry Spell Index for identifying
the frequency, impact of dry spells and drought situation analysis
and their impact on the crop yields; Percent Available Soil
Moisture estimation for declaring crop-based drought impact etc.
were developed for helping in timely declaration of drought and
supporting the farmers. Frost is one of the major extreme weather
events that occurs during winters especially in the northern parts of
the country. A frost forecasting model was developed during the year
2020 (Bal et al., 2021). This will strengthen the early warning of
frost occurrence and timely issue of frost related agromet advisories.
A compilation covering spatial and temporal hailstorm events was
undertaken (Rao et al., 2014) and vulnerable districts to hailstorm
was identified.
Using the long-term weather and crop data, AICRPAM
project coordinating unit conceptualized and prepared “Agroclimatic
Atlas” during the year 2013 for the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (Rao
et al., 2013). Based on these guidelines, cooperating centres of
AICRPAM have prepared Agroclimatic Atlases for their states/
regions. Some of the major achievements are trend analysis of long-
term temperature, rainfall, rainfall probability analysis, analysis of
extreme weather events (drought, frost, fog, hailstorm etc.), changes
in Length of Growing Period (LGP), impact of El-Nino and La-Nina
events on weather etc.
Crop weather relationships
Right from sowing to harvest of the crop, crop growth
depends on the prevailing weather. The variability in the weather
and the stage of the crop decides the impact on the final yields of the
crop. Under this theme, AICRPAM has developed yield prediction
models with the help of identified important weather parameters.
Some examples of crop weather relationships developed by
different AICRPAM centers are 10 mm increase in rainfall in cotton,
during reproductive phase increased the yield by 93 kg ha-1 (Akola);
continuous dry spell during the flower bud initiation and flowering
stages at Vijayapura was identified as the most critical weather
condition to reduce the sunflower yield (less than 600 kg ha-1); a
unit increase in minimum temperature during reproductive period
reduced the yield by 77.5 kg ha-1 in mustard crop under irrigated
conditions at Jammu; yield of Chickpea decreased by 100 kg ha-1
with increase of maximum temperature by 2 °C during reproductive
stage within the temperature range 27.2 to 33.8 °C at Faizabad;
higher relative humidity during reproductive phase was found to
be favourable for producing more seed yield of mustard while it
was having detrimental effect during vegetative stage (Hisar); mean
temperature above 18 oC during flowering to physiological maturity
was found to be detrimental for chickpea yield at Jabalpur; based
on long-term crop weather relation studies at Mohanpur, optimum
transplanting window of kharif rice was identified as the period
from last week of June to 1st week of July for all the varieties and
delay in transplanting by 15 and 30 days reduced the yield by 670
and 920 kg ha-1, respectively; a temperature range of 20.6 to 27.1 oC
and 8.2 to 13.3 oC, for maximum and minimum temperature,
respectively during the reproductive stage, were identified as
optimum for producing wheat yield of 3500 kg ha-1 at Palampur; the
thresholds of maximum and minimum temperature during anthesis
were worked out to be 27.5 and 11.5 oC, respectively for attaining
wheat yield of 4000 kg ha-1 at Ranchi; a mean temperature of 15.2
to 18.3 °C and 18.5 to 21.2 °C during heading to milk stage and
milk to dough stage, respectively was found favourable for getting
higher grain yield of wheat and an increase in mean temperature by
1.0 °C during reproductive phase of the crop caused reduction in
BAL et al.

218 June 2023
grain yield of about 554 kg ha-1 in wheat at Udaipur. (http://www.
cropweatheroutlook.in/crida/amis/annualreport.jsp)
Crop growth modelling applications
Crop simulation models are very important tools for
helping in devising different management strategies for increasing
and sustaining the crop yields. It is also used to assess the impact of
climate change on various crops and developing adaptation strategies
for reducing yield losses. These models require the experimental
field data and long-term weather data sets for their calibration and
validation to simulate real world experimental results. These input
files are called as Minimum Data Sets (MDS) which are required
for all the crops. So far, the centers have developed these MDS,
characterized the crop-specific genetic coefficients for models such
as DSSAT, InfoCrop, APSIM etc. and came out with management
practices for enhancing the yield levels of the crop.
Using the DSSAT CERES rice model and future climate
change scenarios, a simulation was run for the four rice-growing
regions of Eastern India, including areas of the IGP of India. At
all four locations—Kanpur, Faizabad, Raipur, and Ranchi—the
effects of climate change could be seen on rice yields. Because of
the ecosystem of rainfed rice growth, Ranchi was found to have
the highest yield loss in rice. With the exception of Ranchi, all of
the locations saw an increase in rice yields when CO2 levels rose.
The type of rice grown in Ranchi is not sensitive to decreased CO2
levels. Under rainfed conditions, rice’s phenology may accelerate
as a possible physiological mechanism to control source sink
partitioning and achieve the highest feasible source strength and
sink capacity. The ideal time to sow under potential future climate
change scenarios can be determined by adjusting the date of
sowings, which will boost productivity. (Subba Rao et al., 2015).
Maize Model simulations were done based on the location
specific data resources and analyzed district wise maize yields as
well as CC impacts with future climate change scenarios at selected
districts were simulated and compiled. Under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5,
climate change might reduce maize yield by 16% (Tumkur) to 46%
(Jalandhar) and 21% (Tumkur) to 80% (Jalandhar). Without any
adaptation, the yield could only stay marginally higher or constant
at Dharwad compared to the baseline period (1980-2009). (Subba
Rao et al., 2022). The grain yield of rice, wheat and maize are likely
to be reduced by 8.0 to 26.0%; 12.1 to 17.6%, and 4.1 to 19.1%,
respectively as per A1B increasing temperature scenario (2020-
2050) at Ludhiana; mustard yield simulated using Info-Crop model
showed reduction by 450 kg/ha and crop maturity was advanced
by 5 days with 1oC rise in temperature at Mohanpur; the effect of
providing single day protective irrigation (50 mm) during dry spell
(1-19 Sept 2016) in soybean under variable sowing windows at
Akola was simulated using DSSAT and found to be more effective
for delayed sowing condition and many more findings.
Weather effects on pests and diseases
The biotic stress on crops are seasonal and particularly
weather based. When there is a congenial environment that
favours certain pests and diseases, it spatially spreads and damage
the entire crops in a location within no time. That is where the
relationship studies of pest and diseases of crops with weather is
one of the very important aspect for developing plant protection
measures and also developing the forewarning systems. AICRPAM
scientists are collaborating with entomologists and pathologists
of their respective universities and are collecting the crop, pest
and weather data at different stages during the crop season. With
this information, centers have developed statistical equations for
weather-pest relations, forewarning equations and thumb rules for
different pest occurrence. Some of the information generated on
different crops, weather and pests are on mustard aphids (Anand,
Jammu, Palampur), groundnut leaf miner (Anantapur), flea beetle
infestation in grapes, thrips and mealybug (Vijayapura), yellow rust
of wheat (Jammu), pigeon pea pod borer (Faizabad), Karnal bunt of
wheat (Hisar), white fly in cotton (Ludhiana, Hisar), leaf curl virus
in cotton (Hisar), rice blast disease (Palampur), safflower aphid
(Akola, Solapur) and safflower leaf spot (Solapur), sorghum shoot
fly (Solapur) etc.
Agromet advisory services
Farmers require timely and accurate weather forecasts and
advisories information to plan the operations and remedial measures
to reduce the losses in farm produce due to aberrant weather
conditions. Inputs (seeds, fertilizer, plant protection chemicals, etc.)
as well as the entire crop can be saved when agromet advisories are
delivered in a timely way (especially at the maturity stage). Agromet
Advisory Service (AAS) is a part of extension Agrometeorology
and is defined as “Agrometeorological and agro-climatological
information that can be directly applied to improve and/or protect
the livelihood of farmers”. AICRPAM centres as part of GKMS
program publishes AAS bulletins twice a week in local languages
with the support of its cooperating centres across the nation. The
dynamic web portal “Crop weather outlook” hosted by AICRPAM-
CRIDA updates daily and weekly weather & crop information and
Agromet advisories of the 20 states, where the AICRPAM centers
are located in (http://www.cropweatheroutlook.in/). Apart from this,
the coordinating unit at CRIDA in collaboration with 25 cooperating
centres play a major role in issuing daily met sub-divisional rainfall
charts, weekly Agromet advisories based on Extended Range
Weather Forecasts, and monthly crop and weather bulletins for
“NITI Aayog” on status of monsoon, progress in kharif sowing
and AAS for deficit/excess rainfall areas of the country during the
southwest monsoon.
Looking at the shortcomings of district-level Agromet
advisory services, AICRPAM conceptualized and implemented a
Micro-level Agromet Advisory Services (MAAS) on pilot mode
in 50 selected villages across 20 states of the country in 2011. An
Automatic Weather Station Network of ICAR at 100 locations
across the country under AICRPAM-NICRA project was also
established to enhance the accuracy and operational feasibility of
block-level Agromet advisories. Further, several research outputs
from AICRPAM’s research themes are incorporated and enriched
the Agromet Advisory bulletins. These scientific inputs and
improved preparation processes attracted the country’s leading
weather provider IMD to collaborate with AICRPAM unit for
developing National Agromet Advisory Services bulletin every
week and also conceptualized and developed a DSS system for
Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective

219Vol. 25 No. 2
generating very precise information on sowing time of the crop,
crop water requirements, LGP, Irrigation water requirements etc.
AICRPAM unit and its cooperating centers are generating several
reports and updating several ministries, high level functionaries,
line department personals and most importantly the farmers.
Human resource development
AICRPAM unit at ICAR-CRIDA has conducted 37
national trainings on various Agrometeorological topics including
Droughts, Crop weather calendars, crop simulation modeling,
Extreme weather events, crop weather relationships etc. AICRPAM
has also conducted a customized training program for Agriculture
Insurance Company (AIC) personal on Agroclimatic inputs for
crop weather Insurance. AICRPAM, ICAR-CRIDA has conducted
One national training on crop simulation modeling inviting the
international experts from University of Florida, USA was organized
during 2013. AICRPAM enriches the knowledge of its scientist at
cooperating centers by organizing the capacity building programs.
PRODUCTS DEVELOPED THROUGH COORDINATED
RESEARCH
Agroclimatic atlases
The study of a region’s climate, crop performance, and
assessment of climatic variability and climate change and its effects
on agriculture are all undertaken using agro-climatic analysis. Agro-
climatic data is required for better agricultural planning, including
land use, water resource availability, crop suitability, pest and
disease control, and weather-based agro-advisories, to increase crop
productivity. Knowledge on the site specific as well as agro-climatic
region specific resources is crucial, if one is to produce a greater
number of crops while utilizing agricultural resources sustainably.
Therefore, having a good awareness of the climate would be
helpful in choosing the best agricultural management techniques
for maximizing the benefits of favourable weather and limiting
the hazards associated with unfavourable weather. The project
coordinating unit of AICRPAM has come up with an ‘Agroclimatic
atlas of Andhra Pradesh’ in 2013. The atlas included general
agricultural scenario, rainfall characteristics (distribution, trends in
weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual rainfall), rainfall probability
analysis, PET, drought probability analysis, estimation of length of
growing period, trends in various weather elements etc. This served
as a reference publication for cooperating centres of AICRPAM and
so far, eleven agroclimatic atlases have been published by them.
Agrometeorology of crops
The data generated from long-term field experiment
studies under AICRPAM was analyzed for establishing crop-
weather relationships. The effect of weather parameters on crop
phenology, growth, development and final grain/seed yield was
quantified. It was published in the form of agrometeorology of crops
by respective AICRPAM centres.
Crop weather calendars
A crop calendar was developed as a means to illustrate
the sowing and harvesting windows for a crop in a particular area.
Additionally, it offers details on seed rates, planting materials for
sowing, and other agricultural management procedures. Crop
calendars, however, did not include the “weather” component,
which is essential for agricultural decision-making. By adding a
weather component, the crop weather calendar (CWC) evolved
from the crop calendar. The CWC is a visual depiction of data on
sowing, phenological stages and their duration, harvesting time,
typical weather factors during important growth stages, favourable
time and weather conditions for pest and disease incidence, etc. of
a specific crop or variety in a location. In general, CWC is suitable
for crops sown on normal sowing dates, assuming that monsoon
onset would be standard. As a result, it serves as a ready reckoner
for farmers, assisting in the arrangement of timely inputs and crop
management strategies for crop production. For India’s major crops,
the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has prepared district
level CWCs decades back. Later, IMD revised it by incorporating
Fig. 2: District-level crop weather calendars prepared by AICRPAM
BAL et al.

220 June 2023
existing cropping patterns, soil types and conditions favourable
for development of pests and diseases. In 2015, AICRPAM has
prepared district level CWC for major crops in India (Rao et al.,
2015) (Fig.2). The improvements made in CWC prepared by
AICRPAM, compared to that prepared by IMD were (i) optimum
range of weather parameters during critical phenological stages of
crop to achieve higher yield were identified using long term field
experimental data of AICRPAM centers and (ii) optimum range
of weather parameters for incidence of pests and diseases were
quantified from long term experimental data.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPED THROUGH COORDINATED
RESEARCH
Dynamic crop weather calendar (DCWC) a decision support
system
There are numerous drawbacks to the current crop
weather calendars produced by AICRPAM and IMD. For instance,
they assume a regular onset of the monsoon, are static in nature,
contain static management practises, and do not account for changes
in sowing and harvesting dates according to the date of the onset of
the monsoon, changes in crop phenology due to biotic and abiotic
stresses, changes in cultivars, the current weather and weather
forecast, etc. To address some of these issues, AICRPAM developed
DCWC, in which algorithms for generation of sowing schedule,
prediction of crop phenology based on historical and forecasted
weather, computation of phenophases-wise crop water requirement
etc. were included (Vijaya Kumar et al., 2021). The developed
modules were validated with long-term field experimental data of
nine AICRPAM centres and the results are quite promising.
Agroclimatic onset of crop season (AOCS) delineator
As the success of rainfed crop production is highly
dependent on timely sowing/planting decisions, to facilitate the
technical personnel involved in decision making for optimizing the
sowing window, a software was developed namely Agroclimatic
Onset of Crop Season (AOCS) delineator. This software has inbuilt
modules to determine optimum sowing window using three methods
namely Soil Water Balance (SWB), Depth and modified Morris &
Zandesta methods. The software also determines onset date using
Modified Threshold Combination (MTC) method comprising 40
combinations of threshold values viz. rainfall amount, wet spell
duration, dry spell duration and dry spell search period (Bal et al.,
2022b). The software is quite useful for improving practical utility/
decision making, especially in the semi-arid and arid regions of
India.
Dry spell index (DSI) estimator
The dry spells within the crop season, along with
cumulative rainfall deficit, play a vital role in determining the
productivity of various rainfed crops in India. To estimate the
cumulative impact of dry-spell on various rainfed crops, a new
software was developed using the newly defined Dry Spell Index
(DSI). The software was validated across major arid and semi-arid
regions of the country using observed rainfall data of 1636 stations
over six states of India. A comparison of DSI with Standardized
Precipitation Index (SPI), hitherto, a widely used drought index was
also carried out to assess the comparative performance of DSI over
SPI and was found promising. The impact of DSI on yield of major
rainfed crops viz., cotton, groundnut, maize, pearl millet, pigeon
pea and sorghum has also been estimated by employing appropriate
statistical methods. From the correlation analysis of DSI and SPI,
it was observed that the impact of number and duration of dry
spells integrated in the form of DSI was higher in comparison to
the influence of total rainfall indicated by SPI on yield of six major
rainfed crops in India (Bal et al., 2022c).
Weather cock
Weathercock is a software developed for carrying out the
agroclimatic analysis. It has various features for data management
Fig. 3: Dynamic Crop Weather Calendar developed by AICRPAM
Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective

221Vol. 25 No. 2
viz., date conversion, bulk file renaming, unit conversion, data
quality checking, agricultural and meteorological drought analysis,
rainfall probability analysis, analysis of extreme weather events
like heat wave, cold wave, estimation of length of growing period,
climatic water balance etc. (Rao, 2011). (Fig.4). This software is
being used by many researchers and scholars across the world for
carrying out agroclimatic analysis.
Meghdoot app
Scientists of the coordinated project on Agromet were
actively involved and significantly contributed to the development
of “Meghdoot” an android app along with ICRISAT, IITM and IMD.
The app is being used by more than 4 lakh stakeholders to assess
location-based forecast as well as district-wise Agromet advisories.
Support to agromet advisory services
The coordinated research project on agrometeorology
has been acting as a technical support to the operational agromet
advisory services (AAS). The Dynamic Crop Weather Calendar
(DCWC), a Decision Support System developed by AICRPAM is
being used by the SMSs of DAMUS/AFMUs to identify optimum
sowing time and phenology prediction and presently being used in
75 districts of the country for preparing contents for AAS (DTE,
2022). The validity of blanket advisories disseminated at district
level is under question as the variability in terms of crops, varieties,
weather anomalies will be higher while issuing district level AAS.
Further, issuing of block level forecasts by IMD enabled AICRPAM
to think in an experimental way to develop and disseminate micro
level AAS at block level with the help of AICRPAM cooperating
centers and subject matter specialists of Krishi Vigyan Kendras
(KVK). AICRPAM initiated block level AAS at Belgaum district
of Karnataka with the help of its Vijayapura cooperating center. The
conceptual diagram of block-level AAS developed by AICRPAM is
presented in Fig.5.
Under this scheme, 50 villages across India received block
level AAS on a pilot basis from AICRPAM facilities. The Krishi
Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of that area receives block level weather
forecast from IMD website through the scientific staff. Additionally,
we developed a new concept of “Field Information Facilitator
(FIF)”, to act as the interface between the farmer, AICRPAM, and
KVK for the collecting and transmission of agricultural information
(growth stage, vigour, incidence of pests and diseases, etc.).
Feedback from FIF offers an accurate picture of the situation at the
village level, upon which AAS is built (Vijaya Kumar et al., 2017).
As a result, the agrometeorologist at the AICRPAM centre uses SMS
at KVK to generate agromet advisory bulletins that are distributed
to farmers via FIFs and integrate field-level crop information
with weather forecasts. AAS is developed under the name of the
Program Coordinator, KVK, and distributed through a variety of
communication channels, including voice and text SMS on mobile
devices, display in public areas, personal contact, etc. The feedback
from the farmers is being considered for service expansion and
improvement for the benefit of the farming community. According
on the crop and climatic conditions, the monitory benefits from this
AAS range from a few hundred to a few thousand rupees per acre.
Contribution to crop insurance services
The project has contributed significantly in the
development of various weather triggers for use in weather-based
crop insurance and thresholds for assessing damage due to hailstorm,
frost and pest-diseases using technologies in Pradhan Mantri Fasal
Bima Yojana.
Contribution to human resource development in Agrometeorology
AICRPAM is supporting the research work undertaken
by post-graduate and doctoral students of State Agricultural
Universities (SAUs) in Agricultural Meteorology discipline across
the country. The students make use of AICRPAM experimental
fields, instrumentation and IT facilities to conduct their research
to fulfill the requirement for degree. Apart from this, since the
beginning, AICRPAM is a focal point for capacity building in
agricultural meteorology. The project has conducted various
training programs on different aspects of agrometeorology for
faculty members, research scholars, technical staff and farmers at
ICAR-CRIDA Hyderabad. Every year, PC unit of AICRPAM is
also conducting capacity building program for the scientists of its
cooperating centres where focused sessions on data analytics and
product development are carried out (http://www.icar-crida.res.in/
Newsletter/).
Fig. 4: The graphical user interface of Weather Cock software Fig.5: Conceptual diagram of block-level AAS
BAL et al.

222 June 2023
Creating farmers’ awareness on climate change
The coordinated project is also conducting awareness
programs for farmers to sensitize various aspects of climate
change and its impact on agriculture. The feedback of farmers is
also collected in these programs. As an example, during the last
five years (2017-2022), AICRPAM has conducted 141 farmers’
awareness programs on climate change, benefitting 14954 farmers
across the country (http://www.cropweatheroutlook.in/crida/amis/
annualreport.jsp).
WAY FORWARD
The man-made induced changes to the landscape and
atmosphere have brought an increase in extreme weather events,
causing serious concern for agriculture. In these scenarios, the focus
of the coordinated research on agricultural meteorology should
be to make more efforts in understanding the historical database,
for analyzing to aid in crop planning, soil and water management
strategies. This can be achieved by thorough characterization of
extreme weather events causing decline in productivity; quantifying
the climatic shifts including inter-seasonal and intra-seasonal
variability of weather factors, its trends, that might provide clues
on climate change and if possible the impact of such variability
on crop production. In addition to this, the project also envisages
to undertake evaluating suitability of long, medium and short-
range weather forecasts for decision making in crop planning and
management; better understanding of weather-pest relationships and
developing support systems for agromet advisory services of the
country. This will not only improve the livelihood of the farmers but
also support the scientific personnel and policy makers for taking
vital on-farm and off-farm decisions.
There is a need to reorient education in agricultural
meteorology with major emphasis on interpretation of long, sub-
seasonal, medium and short-range weather forecasts for formulation
of advisories in different sectors of agriculture including crop
production, animal husbandry, horticulture and fisheries. Major
emphasis on research at post graduate level should be on development
of regional specific problems that require agrometeorological
interventions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to the former Project Coordinators
(Agrometeorology), scientists and technical staff of coordinating
unit and cooperating centres of AICRPAM for establishing, steering,
streamlining and strengthening the coordinated research program on
agrometeorology in India.
Funding: No funding is involved for this work. Due acknowledgement
has been given to AICRPAM, CRIDA, Hyderabad.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of
interest
Data availability: Review article, data not required
Author’s contribution: S. K. Bal: Conceptualization, overview;
M.A. Sarath Chandran: Writing first draft; A.V.M. Subba Rao:
Review and Editing; N. Manikandan: Review and Editing; B.V.
Ramana Rao: Review and Editing
Disclaimer: The contents, opinions, and views expressed in the
research article published in the Journal of Agrometeorology are the
views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
organizations they belong to.
Publisher’s Note: The periodical remains neutral with regard to
jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
REFERENCES
Bal, S.K. and Minhas, P.S. (2017). Atmospheric Stressors:
Challenges and Coping Strategies. In: P.S. Minhas
et al. (eds) Abiotic Stress Management for Resilient
Agriculture. Springer Nature Singapore Pte. Ltd., pp.
9-50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5744-1_2
Bal, S.K., Dhakar, R., Kumar, P.V., Mishra, A., Pramod, V.P.,
Chandran, M.A., Sandeep, V.M., Subba Rao, A.V.M.,
Gill, K.K. and Prasad, R. (2021). Temporal trends in
frost occurrence and their prediction models using
multivariate statistical techniques for two diverse
locations of Northern India. Theor. Appl. Climatol.,
146(3): 1097-1110.
Bal, S.K., Prasad, J.V.N.S. and Singh, V.K. (2022a). Heat Wave
2022 – Causes, Impacts and Way Forward for Indian
Agriculture. ICAR-CRIDA Technical Bulletin 01-2022.
50p.
Bal, S.K., Manikandan, N., Sandeep, V.M., Vijayakumar, P.,
Lunagaria, M.M., Subba Rao, A.V.M., Pramod, V.P.
and V.K. Singh (2022b). Criteria based decisions for
determining agroclimatic onset of the crop growing
season. Agric. Forest Meteorol., 317: 108903. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.108903
Bal, S.K., Sandeep, V.M., Vijaya Kumar, P., Subba Rao, A.V.M.,
Pramod, V.P., Srinivasa Rao, Ch., Singh, N.P.,
Manikandan, N. and Bhaskar, S. (2022c). Assessing
impact of dry spells on the principal rainfed crops
in major dryland regions of India. Agric. Forest
Meteorol., 313: 108768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
agrformet.2021.108768
DTE. (2022). Update overdue: Why climate change should be
integrated into crop calendars at the hyper local level.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/
update-overdue-why-climate-change-should-be-
integrated-into-crop-calendars-at-the-hyper-local-
level-84806 (Accessed on 13 Jan 2023).
Rao, G.G.S.N., Rao, V.U.M., Vijaya Kumar, P. and Rao, A.V.M.S.
(2010). 25 years research of AICRP on Agrometeorology.
Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture,
Hyderabad – 500 059, 112p.
Rao, V.U.M., Bapuji Rao, B. and Venkateswarlu, B. (2013).
Coordinated research on agrometeorology: India perspective

223Vol. 25 No. 2
Agroclimatic Atlas of Andhra Pradesh. Central Research
Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad - 500 059,
270p.
Rao, V.U.M., Rao, B.B., Sikka, A.K., Rao, A.S., Singh, R. and
Maheswari, M. (2014). Hailstorm Threat to Indian
Agriculture: A Historical Perspective and Future
Strategies. Central Research Institute for Dryland
Agriculture, Hyderabad - 500 059, 44p.
Rao, V.U.M., Subba Rao, A.V.M., Sarath Chandran, M.A., Prabhjyot
Kaur, Vijaya Kumar, P., Bapuji Rao, B., Khandgond
I.R., and Srinivasa Rao, Ch. (2015). District Level Crop
Weather Calendars of Major Crops in India. Central
Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad
– 500 059, 40p.
Rao V.U.M. (2011) Agro-climatic analysis: Weathercock
Software, Short Course on Crop Weather Modeling
(Sponsored by ICAR) held during 13-22 December
2011, e-publication, Pp 71-78. https://krishi.icar.gov.
in/jspui/ bitstream/123456789/31188/ 1/ CWM%
20Lecture%20notes.pdf
Subbarao, A.V.M., Sarath Chandran, M.A., Bal, S.K., Pramod,
V.P., Sandeep, V.M., Manikandan, N., Raju, B.M.K.,
Prabhakar, M., Islam, A. Naresh Kumar, S. and Singh,
V.K. (2022). Evaluating area-specific adaptation
strategies for maize under future climates of India. Sci.
Total Environ., 836: 155511. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.scitotenv.2022.155511
Subbarao, A. V. M., Arun K. Shanker, Rao, V. U. M, Narsimha
Rao, V., Singh A. K, Pragyan Kumari, Singh, C. B.,
Praveen Kumar Verma, Vijaya Kumar, P. Bapuji
Rao, B., Rajkumar Dhakar, M. A. Sarath Chandran,
Naidu, C. V., Chaudhary, J. L, Srinivasa Rao and Ch.,
Venkateswarlu, B. (2015). Predicting Irrigated and
Rainfed Rice Yield Under Projected Climate Change
Scenarios in the Eastern Region of India, Environ.
Model. Assess., 21(1): 17-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/
s10666-015-9462-6
Vijaya Kumar, P., Bal, S.K.*, Dhakar, R., Sarath Chandran,
M.A., Subba Rao, A.V.M., Sandeep, V.M., Pramod,
V.P., Malleswari, S.N., Sudhakar, G., Solanki, N.S.,
Shivaramu, H.S., Lunagaria, M.M., Dakhore, K.K.,
Londhe, V.M., Kumari, P., Singh, M., Subbulakshmi,
S., Manjunatha, M.S. and Chaudhari, N.J. (2021).
Algorithms for Weather Based Management Decisions
in Major Rainfed Crops of India: Validation Using Data
from Multi-location Field Experiments. Agron. J., 113:
1816-1830. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20518
Vijaya Kumar P., Subba Rao A. V. M., M. A. Sarath Chandran,
Venkatesh, H., Rao, V. U. M. and Srinivasa Rao, Ch.
(2017). Micro-level Agromet Advisory Services using
block level weather forecast – A new concept-based
approach. Curr. Sci., 112(2): 227.
Web Links
http://www.icar-crida.res.in/Newsletter/ (Accessed on 18-01-2023)
http://www.cropweatheroutlook.in/ (Accessed on 18-01-2023)
http://www.cropweatheroutlook.in/crida/amis/annualreport.jsp
(Accessed on 18-01-2023)
BAL et al.