AGM 502 : Fundamental of Agricultural Meteorology

Dr Anil Kumar, Assistant Scientist (Agrimet), Dept

of Agril. Meteorology, COA, CCS HAU, Hisar
Email id: anilmeteo@hau.ac.in
Mobile: 9467988167 (what app no)
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 CONTENTS OF UNIT III

(1) INTRODUCTION

(2) IMPORATANCE OF CROP WEATHER CALAENDAR (CWC)

(3) PREPARATION OF CROP WEATHER CALENDAR (CWC)

(4) CWC OF MUSTARD, WHEAT FOR HISAR AND ANAND DISTRICTS

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 crop weather calendar is a pictorial representation of detailed
information for a locally adapted crops with respect to it’s
sowing period and the duration of important phenological stages
during it’s entire life cycle, the optimum climatic requirement
during different stages of the crop and also the actual and
normal weather for that location/region is called the CWC.

 it is a single sheet of paper which contains summarized

information with respect to crop weather possibilities of
appearance of pest/disease can be very useful for the farmers.

 it is also imperative for the farmers to utilize the information

provided in the weather bulletins appropriately.

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Crop - Weather – Calenderers for various crops
 CWC provide the farmer with an efficient weather service, it is essential
that the weather forecaster should be familiar with the crops that are
grown in a particular agroclimatic zone.

 To meet the all requirement, detailed information collected from the

agricultural departments has been condensed by the IMD and presented
in a pictorial from known as a Crop weather calendar.

 Also, the crop weather calendars prepared district wise may not be of
much use at the micro level. Hence, the crop weather calendars are to be
prepared at the village panchayat level by the agrometeorological field
units (AMFUs), established in different agroclimatic zones, through
research and development activities taken up for major crops and
varieties.

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Weather is one of the most important factors affecting the
agricultural production. The increase in climatic variability and
associated extreme weather episodes such as erratic rainfall
distribution, abrupt change in day and night temperature during
the crop season and sudden outbreaks in pest disease
population, especially in developing countries, are throwing
challenges to sustaining production levels of different crops.

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Agriculture is one of the most important sectors for
India.
Proper planning for this sector requires relevant and
reliable information in timely manner. Information on
crop, its stages and the week by week weather during
the crop season is essential for proper management of
agriculture.
Thus, farm operations planned in conjunction with
weather information are very likely to curtail the costs
of inputs and various field operations.

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A comprehensive knowledge about various stages of crop is
a prerequisite for preparing and issuing timely weather
releated warning.

 Most of the farmers are unable to utilize the weather

information properly. Our responsibility is to train our farming
folk in such a way that every single issue gets addressed
appropriately in a time bound manner.

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one strategy that farmers can adopt to sustain or
increase crop yields in the face of a highly variable
climate is to manipulate the crop environment through
improved management strategies for adaptation.

 hence, the Agrometeorological field units (AMFU)

prepare crop weather calendars for important crops
and various varieties through research and
development process.

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 Commendable efforts have been made by the scientists and
estimates of weather fluctuations are given one week in advance
by the National Centre for Medium Range Weather
forecasting(NCMRWF), New Delhi on every Tuesday and Friday.

 The temperature, amount of rainfall and humidity required by a

crop is Phase specific, if the information pertaining to the possible
condition of temperature, rainfall and humidity and also effects of
unfavourable weather (Viz, occurence of drought, unexpected
rains, cold waves, terminal heat etc.) is transmitted well in
advance among the farming folk, then measures can be adopted
by the farmers and minimize the crop losses.

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 Continue....
 The appropriate measures can be adopted by farmers like use
of insecticides, pesticides, herbicides and follow other practices in
view of weather information. In this way, the crops can be saved
as well as the cost/expenditure losses can also be minimized.

So, CWC is a extremely important for the farmers to have a look

on such information regularly and always remain updated releated
to weather condition at a specified point of time and for a given
location/region.

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 CWC plays an important role in improving the quality of
medium range weather forecast based on agromet advisory services

 For ex.:- In the crop weather calendar for wheat crop, during the
anthesis and grain filling stage of Wheat (February – March months )
the maximum temperature should be within 17 – 25 0C and minimum
temperature within 4 – 9 0C. However, if the temperature rise by 3 – 4
0C from the optimum temperature limit for more than 4 – 5 days in a

week, then if no control measures are taken, the productivity of the

wheat crop is adversely affected. Therefore, the agrometeorologist
may immediately give an advisory to farmers for applying additional
irrigation to offset the negative effect of heat wave in wheat crop.

 This type of information for any crop of the region will make the
agromet advisory more useful as well as practical for the farmers and
the other end users. 13
 The crop weather divided into three parts :-

1) Climatic normals
2) Crop husbandry/phenological observations (sowing to harvest)
3) Weather warning
1) Climatic normals:-
 It is the uppermost portion of calendar contains average
meteorological data for different months and the respective
standard meteorological weeks for the location/ region for the
entire growth period of the crop.

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 It is average of climate elements worked out using the historical
meteorological data (over a time period exceeding 20 years) as per
availability of data.

 These normals are computed with respect to total weekly rainfall,

number of rainy days (rainfall > 2.5mm) and Maximum & Minimum
temperature, relative humidity (morning and evening), solar
radiation/ sunshine hours, wind speed (Km/hr) and wind direction
(degree) as per availability of data.

 The months and standard meteorological weeks are marked at the

top of the calendar.

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2) Crop husbandry/phenological observations (sowing
to
harvest) :-
 The middle part of CWC shows the typical life history of the crop
in the form of a diagram.

 Important “growth phases’’ relevant to the crops cover certain

time intervals indicated by horizontal bars, which depend on
variations in crop variety, sowing date from place to place and from
year to year and the nature of crop itself.

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it is indicates the favourable meteorological
conditions for the crop which will lead towards
high yield of the crop.

For ex.:- phenological stages for wheat crop

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Life cycle of wheat can be divided into following

phenological stages :-

Stage 1-Seedling Stage

 The first stage of growth in wheat is called the seedling stage.

This stage occurs after germination and begins when the first true
leaves emerge from the soil, and ends when the first tiller
emerges. During the seedling stage the second leaves are just
emerging and beginning to unroll and there are as many as six
seminal roots.

Stage 2 -Tillering Stage

 Tillers are new shoots that emerge from the root of the plant.
Each tiller can grow its own stalk and ear, so the number of tillers
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will determine the potential yield of the plant. Tillering can occur
Stage 3-Jointing Stage

 The jointing stage starts when the stalk forms its second
node, a hard joint from which the plant telescopes upwards.
During the jointing stage, the smaller, less-formed tillers often die
off. It is important that all the wheat plants in a field reach the
jointing stage at the same time, so that all the heads mature at
same time.

Stage 4-Booting Stage

 During the booting stage, the head of the wheat develops

and becomes visible beneath the sheath on the stalk. The
booting stage ends when the tips of the head, called awns, begin
to emerge from the sheath.

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Stage5 -Heading and Flowering Stage

 The heading and flowering stage begins when the awns

emerge from the sheath. When the awns have emerged the
flowering begins and pollination and fertilization occurs. It is
important that all the plants in a field flower at the same time.
Right after fertilization, the embryo and endosperm begin to form.

Stage6 -Maturity Stage

 The maturity stage immediately follows fertilization and

includes several short stages. The milk stage is the first stage,
and kernel begins to form. The kernel is fully formed during the
dough stage, and the plant takes nutrients from the stalk and
leaves and transfers them to the kernel. The kernel is still very
moist at the end of the dough stage and contains about 30 per
cent water. During the ripening stage the kernel loses the rest of
its moisture and is ready to be harvested. 22
 (3) Weather warning :-
 The bottom portion of the calendar consists of meteorological
conditions conductive for incidence of pests and disease and the
nature of the weather warnings that can be given.

 The horizontal bars indicate the susceptible periods of the crop

during which if the weather is conductive and disease inoculum/
insect is present, then, the incidence of that disease /pest may
occur.

 According to this information an agrometeorologist can issue

weather based agromet advisory for control of disease /pest in
the crop.

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CROP WEATHER CALENDER OF WHEAT
FOR DISTRIC:-Hisar
 Hisar Haryana located in semi arid with medium and deep
clayey black soils, medium to high AWHC.
 Length of growing period(LGP) of 120 -150 days.
 Wheat is major crop in rabi season.
Length of growing period isdefined as the period during the year
when an average temperatures >=5°C (Tmean >=5°C) & and
precipitation (rainfall) plus moisture stored in the soil exceed
half the potential evapotranspiration (P>0.5PET).

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 SYMBOL OF TRUST

9/11/2020 TP-2020-21, CCSHAU Hisar 27