Department of Agricultural Metereology

​MANDATE

• To impart teaching in Agricultural Meteorology at the Graduate level
• To undertake Post Graduate Programme in Agricultural Meteorology
• To initiate and augment agromet database
• To carry out research on basic and applied aspects of agroclimatology, including climate change impacts
• To study the influence of weather on insect pest and diseases of major crops
• To disseminate weekly agromet advisory bulletin based on Medium Range Weather Forecasting
• To provide short term training in basic meteorological observations and applied meteorological aspects to agricultural service personnel and farmers

EDUCATION

• The department offers fifteen courses, having a total of 42 credits for the B.Sc.(Ag.), B.Sc. (For.), MSc.(Ag.) in Agricultural Meteorology, and Ph. D programmes of allied departments

Courses offered by the department for UG Programme

1. Agmt 1101 – Introductory Agro-meteorology and climate change (1+1) for B.Sc.(Hons.) Agriculture
2. Bass 1208 – Climate Science (1+1) for B.Sc. (Hons.) Forestry

Courses offered by the department for PG/PhD Programme

1. AGM 501 Fundamentals of meteorology and climatology (2+1)
2. AGM 502 Fundamentals of agricultural meteorology (2+1)
3. AGM.503 Micrometeorology (2+1)
4. AGM 504 Agro-meteorological measurements and instrumentation (1+2)
5. AGM 506 Crop weather models (1+2)
6. AGM 507 Weather modification and risk management strategies (2+0)
7. AGM 508 Principles of remote sensing and its applications in agriculture (2+1)
8. AGM 591 Master’s seminar (1+0)

RESEARCH

• The Department of Agricultural Meteorology is handling four external aided projects and four state plan board funded projects.

AICRP on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) - ICAR funded

• Date of start : 01.04.1995

Objectives/Activities

• Agro climatic resources characterization
• Crop weather relationships studies of major crops viz. rice, pepper etc.
• Crop weather models
• Crop weather pest relationships
• Agro-meteorological Advisory Services
• Crop contingent plan – NAAS Bulletin

AICRPAM-NICRA (National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture)-ICAR funded

• Date of start : 23.03.2011 

Objectives/Activities

• Developing and of disseminating the micro level AAS bulletin
• Validation of block level and district level weather forecast
• Agroclimatic analysis of NICRA district of Malappuram
• Crop loss and extreme events studies
• Farmer's awareness programmes
• Crop contingent plan – NAAS Bulletin

Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) - IMD/Ministry of Earth Science funded

Date of start : 13.12.2012                                                                                                         

Objectives/Activities

• Field visits and identification of stage and state of the crops
• Problem identification
• Receiving weather forecast from IMD
• Discussion with Agromet Advisory Board
• Preparation of Agromet Advisory Bulletin based on medium range weather forecast and stage and state of the crops in both Malayalam and English on every Tuesday and Friday
• Dissemination of Agromet Advisory Bulletin to stakeholders

Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL)- IMD/Ministry of Earth Science funded

Date of start : 24.02.2011                                                                                                         

Objectives/Activities

• Development of national / state / district level multiple crop yield forecast models for major crop
• Issue crop yield forecasts for the principal crops (rice) based on statistical (SPSS) and dynamical (DSSAT) models
• Yield forecast to be issued at mid season (F2) and pre-harvest stages (F3)                                                       

Strengthening Agromet Advisory Services  in the Central Zone of Kerala -State Planning Board funded        

Objectives/Activities

• Development of a meteorological data base for the Central Zone of Kerala
• Evaluating the trends in rainfall, temperature and relative humidity across the zone
• Preparing location specific Agromet Advisory  Bulletins twice in a week on every Tuesday and Friday in Malayalam as well as in English
• Dissemination of Agromet Advisory Bulletins through direct delivery, SMS, emails, local news paper, farmers’ portal, etc.
• Agromet advisory Bulletins are being issued to the selected farmers of Ollukkara block (Pananchery, Puthur, Madakathara, Ollukkara and Nadathara panchayaths) and feedback was collected
• Visits are conducting to the farmer’s field in necessary situations for the pests and disease observations. Diseased or pest affected specimens are taking to the experts. Control measures prescribed by the experts were informed to the farmers
• Notice board fixed at 10 Krishibhavans of Thrissur District
• Farmers awareness programme are conducting regularly

Crop weather relation studies in banana (Nendran) under the changing  climate (Central Region) -   

Sate Planning Board funded

Objectives/Activities

• Assessing the relative performance of a widely adapted and adopted Nendran variety planted at different planting dates
• Analyzing the crop weather relations in banana by using the crop data collected in the previous years
• Field experiments are conducting from 2013 onwards in two seasons
• Studied the effects of weather parameters on growth and yield of banana and the five weather parameters are temperature, sunshine, relative humidity, rainfall, and wind; of these five the temperature has the greatest influence and the wind has the least influence

Indigenous technical knowledge of weather and climate in relation with  agriculture and forecasting in Northern and High Range Zone of Kerala-Sate Planning Board funded

Objectives/Activities

• Validating the different ITKs’ in relation to weather
• The study discusses the use of indigenous technical knowledge as a strategy for weather forecasting among farmers
• Many weather based Proverbs and folklores were collected from farmers of Northern (Kasragod, Kannur, Kozhikkod and Malappuram) and High Range (Wayanad and Idukki) Zones of Kerala, which are highly useful for Agriculture and weather forecasting
• The validation of ITKs helps the planners to make the crop weather calendar and njattuvela calendar which will be helpful for the farmers for the crop planning

Establishment of pest and disease surveillance and forewarning unit in the  Central Zone - Sate Planning Board funded

Objectives/Activities

• Evaluating the effect of Agrometeorological factors on the incidence of pest and diseases in three major crops (rice,  banana, cowpea) and preparing a disease and pest forecasting model by conducting routine field visits
• The crop-weather-disease relationship is mainly analysing for the diseases viz. leaf blight of rice, sigatoka of banana and mosaic of cowpea and the crop-weather-pest relationship is mainly analysing for the pests viz. leaf roller of rice, pseudo stem weevil of banana and pod borer of cowpea based on the weekly observations.
• The incidence of pest and diseases in a crop is determined by a variety of factors such as crop phenology, pest phenology and the weather parameters
• The development period of insect pest are primarily depending on temperature and relative humidity

EXTENSION

• Dissemination of Agromet Advisory Bulletins to the farmers of four district viz., Thrissur,

Palakkad, Ernakulam and Malappuram using medium range weather forecasting

• Agromet Advisory bulletins for Kerala are preparing and sending to IMD and ICAR
• Regular field visits to the farmers field
• Conducting of farmer’s awareness programme on Climate change and Agriculture through out  

     Kerala to educate farmers as well as to the students community

• Installation of raingauges at different farmers’ house to educate them about rainfall variability and climate change
• Installation and inspection of agromet instruments in other stations of KAU

Principal Agrometeorological Observatory

• The principal Agrometeorological Observatory was established on 18.10.1979 under the Department
• The observations (Rainfall, Maximum and Minimum temperature, Dry and wet bulb temperature, Sunshine hours, Wind speed and direction, Relative humidity, Soil temperature, Evaporation, Dew etc.) are taken in four times a day viz. 0700 hrs LMT, 0830 hrs IST, 1400 hrs LMT and 1730 hrs IST.
• The weather data is available from 1983 onwards

PUBLICATIONS

Research papers published by the Department during the last 5 years (2013-18)

• B. Ajithkumar and  P.P. Sreekala (2015). Rainfall variability over Kerala. Journal of Agrometeorology.17(2):273-275
• C. Laly Jhon and B. Ajithkumar (2015). Probability models for weekly rainfall at Thrissur. Journal of tropical agriculture. 53(1):56-62.
• B. Ajithkumar, G. Subramanyam and Arjun Vysakh (2015). Rainfall analysis for crop planning in Thrissur district. Green farming. 6(3):650-652.
• Arjun vysakh, B. Ajithkumar, Naziya and Laly John (2016).Response of rice (O.sativa) to changing weather conditions. Green Farming.7(5):1232-1235. 
• V. P. Karthika, B. Ajithkumar, and C. Laly John (2016). A fundamental study to identify the suitable cropping period for cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) and to asses the impact of various weather parameters on its cultivation in central Kerala. Res.J.of Agric.Sci. 7(4/5):783-786. 
• Arjun Vysakh, B. Ajithkumar and A. V. M. Subbarao (2016). Evaluation of CERES rice model for the selected rice varieties of Kerala. J. of Agric.Meteorology. 18(1):120-123. 
• B. Ajithkumar, P. P. Sreekala, M. A. S.Chandran and V. M. Sandeep (2017).Temporal and spatial variability of drought in Kerala. Contemporary Res. in India.7(1):11-17.
• B. Ajithkumar, Arjun Vysakh and P. P. Sreekala (2017). Effect of El Nino on rainfall and thermal regime of Kerala. Contemporary Res.in India.7(2):279-285.
• Arjun Vysakh, B. Ajithkumar and J. Venkat Satish (2017). Effect of dates of planting on crop water requirement of rice in Kerala. J. of Agric. Meteorology. 19 (Special Issue - AGMET 2016): 51-54.
• Sushna K and B Ajithkumar. (2017). Influence of Weather Parameters on Growth of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum L.). Contemporary. Res. in India. 7(2):169-173.
• J. Venkat Satish, B. Ajithkumar, C. Laly John and Arjun Vysakh. (2017). Heat units requirement for different rice varieties in the Central Zone of Kerala. Contemporary Res.in India.7(3): 1-6.
• Sushna K and B Ajithkumar. 2018. Influence of Weather Parameters on the productivity of Black Pepper. Res.J.of Agric.Sci. 9(1):09-13.
• B. Ajithkumar and Arjun Vysakh. 2018. Trends in seasonal and annual rainfall and rainy days (1991-2012) over Kerala. Contemporary Res.in India.8(2): 64-69.
• Arjun Vysakh and B. Ajithkumar. 2018.  Length of growing period: A comparative study with normal and drought years in Kerala. J. of Agric. Meteorology. 20 (Special Issue): 216-220.
• S. Navyashree and B. Ajithkumar. 2018. Assessment of agricultural and meteorological drought and agricultural planning using incomplete gamma distribution in Kerala. J. of Agric. Meteorology. 20 (Special Issue): 262-265.
• Athira Ravindran, B. Ajithkumar, Arjun Vysakh and S. Navyashree. 2018. Crop weather calendar for paddy: A useful tool for crop planning. J. of Agric. Meteorology. 20 (Special Issue): 213-215.

Technical bulletins published by the Department during the last 5 years (2013-18)

• B. Ajithkumar, V. P. Karthika and V.U.M.Rao (2014). Crop Weather Relationships in Cauliflower.
• B. Ajithkumar, P. Lincy Davis, V. P. Karthika, K. V. Ajayan, Arjun Vysakh, and G. Subramanyam (2014). Agrometeorological instruments.
• B. Ajithkumar, Sajan Kurian, V.U.M.Rao, P.P. Sreekala, C. Vishnu and Rakesh Sekhar (2015). Technical  bulletin on Agroclimatic Atlas of Kerala
• B. Ajithkumar, Arjun Vysakh, P.P. Sreekala, G.S.L.H.V. Prasada Rao, Sajan Kurian, V.U.M.Rao and P. Vijayakumar (2016). Technical  bulletin on Agrometeorology of Coconut in Kerala, KAU Press.
• B. Ajithkumar, Sajan Kurian, P.P.Sreekala, Arjun Vysakh and P. Vijayakumar. (2017). El Nino: Its impact on climatic variability and and crop production in Kerala, KAU Press, Thrissur

AWARDS RECEIVED DURING THE LAST 5 YEARS

Year Award 2012-13 Young Scientist Award in the 22nd Swadeshi Science Congress held at CPCRI Kasaragod during November 6-8, 2012 (Mrs. Karthika V. P) 2013-14 Award for the very good work of the observer and very good grade award for the observatory 2014-15 Award for the very good work of the observer and very good grade award for the observatory First runner-up award for poster presentation-NASA 2014(International symposium) held at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, during October 16-18, 2014 2015-16 Award for the excellent work of the observer and very excellent grade award for the observatory 2016-17 Best paper award for the paper presentation at AGMET 2016 at TNAU, Coimbatore (Aswathy C. et al) 2017-18 Best poster presentation award during the National Seminar – AGMET-2017 held at CCS HAU,  Hisar (Arjun Vysakh et al.) Haritham Krishi Jwala Award for the best Agrometeorologist   2018-19 Ms. Anunayana T. John(2017PG) has nominated for the International Agriculture and Rural Development (IARD) short course to be held during October 2018 at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York Ms. Anunayana T. John(2017PG) has availed a scholarship of Rs. 1,75,000/- to take up exchange programme and engage in project work while pursuing her degree