Weather based decision support system for crop risk management

Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University in collaboration with India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences, GoI has been rendering weather forecast based Agromet Advisory Service (AAS) for benefit of farmers in the state through Agromet Field Units (AMFU) on Tuesday and Friday for next five days. Farmers of Haryana have begun to adopt new technologies and practices in recent years to become more and more climate smart for better economic returns without much external support. The weather based information was disseminated through several modes of communication viz. radio, television, local and regional newspapers, toll free numbers, community radios, etc., to the farmers of the Haryana state. The use of aforesaid means of dissemination of agromet advisory to the farmers have limitation i.e. less lead time is available for day to day planning for agricultural operations in the field. Web enabled agromet information system www.emausamhau.gov.in and www.emausamhau.com were developed for real time dissemination of agromet advisory to the farmers of the state under climate smart agriculture has the advantage of increase in lead time by reducing time in dissemination. It is a system that support the weather based farm decision making activities to the farmers through SMSs, mobile App and information kiosk. It provides real time weather based agro-advisory and benefit in managing the farm operations and reducing input losses. The weather based crop advisory services helped the farmers for maximize profit by increasing farm production and minimizing weather related losses. The Adaptive capacity of the farming community has been strengthened through reduced cost of cultivation and input use, access to knowledge, information and technology, and reduced risk from drought and other extreme events. In the current status >3.5 lakh farmers across the state have been receiving the weather based farm information through real time agromet decision support system for crop risk management through web enabled SMS services. The farmers showed overwhelmed response for their registration under mobile SMS and download the mobile app emausamhau from Google play store for weather forecast based crop information. It will help to enhance the farm productivity and farmer's income to be doubled by reducing farm losses with timely guidance through decision support system.