India Meteorological Department (IMD) started weather services for
farmers in the year 1945. It was broadcast by All India Radio in the form of
Farmer’s Weather Bulletin (FWB). Subsequently, in the year 1976, IMD started
Agro-Meteorological agriculturalAdvisory Service (AAS) from its State
Meteorological Centers, in collaboration with Agriculture Departments of the
respective State Governments. Though these services
are being regularly provided by IMD for the past many years, the demand of
the farming community could not be fully met due to certain drawbacks in the
system. In view of that IMD launched Integrated Agromet Service in the
country for 2007 in collaboration with different organisations/institutes. At
present bulletins are being issued from three levels as mentioned below.
National
Agromet Advisory Bulletin ( http://imdagrimet.org/allIndia.htm
) : The bulletin is prepared for
national level agricultural-planning & management and is being issued by
National Agromet Advisory Service Centre, Agricultural Meteorology Division,
India Meteorological Department. Prime users of this bulletin are Crop
Weather Watch Group, (CWWG),Ministry of agriculture..Bulletin is also
communicated to all the related Ministries (State & Central),
Organizations, NGOs for their use.
State Agromet Advisory Bulletin
( http://imdagrimet.org/bulletin3new.htm ): This
bulletin is prepared for State level agricultural planning & management.
These bulletins are issued from 22 AAS units at different State capitals.
Prime user of this bulletin is State
ACWWG. This is also meant for other users like Fertilizer industry, Pesticide
industry, Irrigation Department, Seed Corporation, Transport and other
organizations which provide inputs in agriculture.
District Agromet Advisory Bulletin ( http://imdagrimet.org/DAAS/India.htm
This is prepared for the farmersof the districts.. These bulletins
are being issued from 30 AMFUs functioning at State Agricultural
Universities. This contains advisories for all the weather
sensitive agricultural operations form sowing to harvest. It also includes
advisories for horticultural crops and livestock.. These weather based advisories are
disseminated to the farmers through mass media dissemination, Internet etc as
well as through district level intermediaries. The advisories will be
communicated through multi-channel dissemination system.