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State Agro-Meteorological Centre

Meteorological Centre

Gangtok: Sikkim

Annual Report for the year 2010-11

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

No. Contents Page No.

1.

Introduction 3

2.

Integrated Agro-met Advisory Services(IAAS) 4

3.

Dissemination of Agro-Meteorological Bulletins 4

4.

World Meteorological Day 2011 5

5.

Farmers Awareness Programme (User’s Workshop) 6

6.

Agro-met Brochure 8

7.

District Level Forecast & Use of Numerical Weather

Prediction System of India Meteorological

Department 9

8.

Annual Review Meeting 2010

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9. Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-

meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL) 12

10. Future Plans 13

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1. Introduction:

The Meteorological Observatory in

Gangtok was established on the 7th

May’1955 in the Raj Bhawan Area by

India Meteorological Department, New

Delhi. In the year 1978, an Agro-

meteorological Advisory Services (AAS)

Unit was subsequently established to

provide Agro-meteorological services to

the farmers of Sikkim. Another

Meteorological Observatory was

established in August 1978 in ICAR

Complex, Tadong for providing weather

data to Agricultural Scientists engaged

in active agricultural research. Further,

four Part-Time Observatories, one in

each district of Sikkim were established

during 1979-80 under the Agro-met

Scheme. From 1991 the Agro-

Meteorological Advisory Services Unit,

Gangtok started issue of bi-weekly

Agro-Meteorological Advisory Bulletins

for various end-users especially

progressive farmers of Sikkim in active

coordination with State Agricultural

Department Govt. of Sikkim. The Agro-

Meteorological Advisory Services Unit,

Gangtok has been upgraded to

Meteorological Centre, Gangtok in July

2003 and daily Local Weather Forecast

for Gangtok & neighbourhood issued

from April 2004 onwards. Under the

ongoing modernization phase of IMD,

various computerized equipments viz.

DMDD, HSDT, IVRS & VSAT have since

been installed at MC Gangtok.

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2. Integrated Agro-

Meteorological Advisory

Service in Sikkim:

Bi-weekly Composite Agro-

Meteorological Advisory Bulletins for

Sikkim is being issued from 4th April

2008 onwards under Integrated Agro-

Meteorological Advisory Service

Scheme from State Agro-Meteorological

Centre (SAMC) MC Gangtok. Presently,

bi-weekly Composite Agro-

Meteorological Advisory Bulletins for

Sikkim is issued separately for the four

districts of Sikkim utilizing the synoptic

data of: M.O. Gangtok, M.O. Tadong &

PTO Mazitar for East District; PTO

Namthang for South District; and PTO

Mangan for North District.

3. Dissemination of Agro-

Meteorological Bulletins:

English version of bi-weekly Composite

Agro-Meteorological Advisory Bulletins

for Sikkim is regularly uploaded in

websites www.imd.gov.in;

www.imdagrimet.gov.in; and

www.imdsikkim.gov.in of MC Gangtok

and Nepali version is broadcast by AIR

Gangtok and telecast by Doordarshan

Kendra Gangtok. Moreover the bulletins

are mailed to various authorities of

Departments of Agriculture and

Horticulture Govt. of Sikkim from

broader utilization by progressive

farmers of respective

Agriculture/Horticulture Farms in

different districts of Sikkim.

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www.imdsikkim.gov.in

4. WMO Day 2011:

World Meteorological Day was observed

on 23rd March 2011 in the premises of

Meteorological Observatory Raj Bhawan

Area Gangtok. The Observatory was

kept open to visitors and an exhibition

was arranged highlighting the various

activities and services viz. Weather

Forecast & Warnings, Agro-

Meteorological Bulletins, Seismological

Services, Data utilization through

satellite from Automatic Weather

Stations etc. rendered by M.C. Gangtok

and its network of departmental and

part-time observatories in Sikkim.

All the officials of MC Gangtok actively

participated in the exhibition and

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demonstrated various aspects of

meteorology including weather &

climate, seismology etc.

to the visiting students and teachers of

various schools and colleges as well as

media personnel and briefed them

about various services provided by India

Meteorological Department for the

country.

Also the utility of all the meteorological

instruments installed in the observatory

were demonstrated especially to the

visiting students.

5. Farmers Awareness

Programme (User’s

Workshop): “User’s Workshop” was organized

by Meteorological Centre Gangtok on

30th April 2010 at the Seminar Hall of

Office of the Chief Election Officer,

Baluwakhani, Gangtok.

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The conference was held in two

sessions, the first being the inaugural

session and the second being the user’s

participation and interaction. On the

occasion Mr. Bhim Prasad Dhungel,

Minister of Tourism and Science &

Technology, Govt. of Sikkim was the

chief guest and AVM (Dr.) Ajit Tyagi,

Director General of Meteorology

presided over the conference. Many

senior officers of IMD, State & Central

Govt. official including the stakeholders

of Integrated Agro-Meteorological

Advisory Service Scheme from State

Agro-Meteorological Centre (SAMC) MC

Gangtok IAAS, various NGOs from

Sikkim & Darjeeling Hills and media and

press participated.

DGM gave introduction about

advanced technologies for better and

accurate prediction and it’s timely

dissemination to the stakeholders and

end users of Sikkim. Consequently,

weather warnings are being issued to

various departments of Govt. of Sikkim,

public sector undertakings and all the

listed NGOs of Sikkim & North Bengal

(Sub-Himalayan West Bengal) via SMS

through High Speed Data Terminal

(HSDT) installed at MC Gangtok.

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6. Agro-met Brochure:

Agricultural Meteorology Division,

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

in collaboration with State

Agricultural Universities, Indian Council

of Agricultural Research and Indian

Institute of Technology published

Agromet Brochure highlighting the

activities of the Agrimet Division

particularly the different tiers of

Integrated Agromet Advisory Services

launched by IMD/Ministry of Earth

Sciences (MoES) for the benefit of the

Indian farmers. For general awareness

and easier access to the

services of IMD, the brochure in

English and Nepali version have been

widely circulated to the concerned

stakeholders of organizations/institutes

like Department of

Agriculture/Horticulture/Veterinary,

Govt. of Sikkim; Indian Council of

Agricultural Research (ICAR) for North-

Eastern Hill Region, Tadong, East

Sikkim; State Agricultural Engineering

University, Ranipool, East Sikkim;

Regional Research Institutes, Spices

Board of India, Gangtok; Krishi Vigyan

Kendras of all the four districts of

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Sikkim; NGOs and all other

organization directly and indirectly

related to the agricultural services

in Sikkim.

7. District Level Forecast & Use of Numerical Weather

Prediction System of India Meteorological Department:

District Level Quantitative

Forecasts for Sikkim state based on

Multi-model Ensemble (MME) Technique

available in the IMD website

www.imd.gov.in meant for the

Integrated Agro-Meteorological

Advisory Service Scheme is regularly

downloaded on the days of issue of bi-

weekly Composite Agro-Meteorological

Advisory Bulletins for Sikkim.

Value addition for rainfall carried

out based on the average of QPF

forecasts for different districts of Sikkim

as depicted by Global Forecast System

(GFS T382) incorporating Global

Statistical Interpolation (GSI) scheme

for the forecast up to 7 days and

the meso-scale forecast system WRF

(ARW – 9 km) for the forecast up to

3 days using initial and boundary

conditions from the IMD GFS-382 under

the modernization programme of the

Department. Value addition of other

[parameters are carried out based on

past trends and forecasted weather

patterns.

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8. Annual Review Meeting 2010:

Annual Review meeting was

organized at Archarya N.G. Ranga

Agricultural University, Hyderabad

during 20-22 December, 2010. Major

recommendations of ARM are as

follows:

• There is need to develop products

on soil moisture, crop indices,

stress identification, pest &

disease mapping etc. for

preparation on crop and location

specific agromet advisories.

• There is need to prepare unified

system for verification of District

level weather forecast. The

success of the district level

agromet advisories depends on

the accuracy of forecast. It has

been observed that there is a

need to improve the district level

forecasts particularly in monsoon

season. There is need to provide

weather information and

weather forecast as well as

important agromet advisories to

State Government Officials and

all other users in the state

including the fertilizer industries

and seed corporation etc.

• Though initiative has been

taken by Agrimet Division,

Pune to disseminate the

agromet advisories under PPP

models to around 1 million

farmers; but there is a need to

extend this service to 3 million

farmers during next one year. In

order to facilitate wider

dissemination of agromet

advisories through mobile and

other sources the information

may be provided free of cost to

disseminating agencies and

funding from ATMA may be

explored.

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• Though a number of AMFUs

have started preparation of

weather based advisories; still

there is lot of scope for

preparation of weather based

advisories particularly in

unseasonal and extreme weather

conditions. Besides, district level

AAS bulletins should be prepared

for all the districts (619) of the

country at the earliest.

• Feedback at different levels on

real time basis is one of the

important component; hence it

may be obtained on regular basis

and used in preparation of need

based agromet advisories.

• There is need to quantify the

impacts of unseasonal weather

and extreme weather events on

crops.

• District level Agromet Unit may

be set up in collaboration with

ICAR. Initiative for sensitization

of media for popularization of

AAS may be taken up on priority

basis. Krishi Darshan

Programme is an ideal

platform for popularizing the

Agromet Advisory Services as

large mass of the users sees this

programme on regular basis.

• Regular monitoring of

preparation of agromet

advisory bulletins as well as

sending the replies of the user’s

queries at different levels is

required to make this service

more vibrant and useful.

• Under the changing climate and

cropping pattern in different parts

of the country, there is a need to

revisit the classification of

agroclimatic zones. ICRISAT and

other NGOs are giving useful

services particularly in watershed

areas. Similarly NRSC generate

useful satellite information and

products for agriculture. This

information will be useful in

preparation of advisories.

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9. Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agro-

meteorology and Land based observations (FASAL):

India Meteorological Department

has developed Crop Yield Forecasting

models based on multiple correlation

and regression technique. It is a

linear combination of predictors (both

meteorological parameters and

technological parameters), which

takes into account the influence of

weather and technological advances

on yield.

Based on the above methodology,

pre-harvest crop yield forecast

models have been developed for

kharif rice & rabi wheat for

meteorological subdivision in those

parts of the country where these crops

were grown predominantly. It is

proposed that IMD would develop

Crop Yield Forecasting models for

major crops of the country with

greater accuracy in collaboration with

Department of Space (DOS) and

Department of Agriculture and

Cooperation (DAC).

The crop yield forecasts at

different stages of the growth period

would be issued as follows:

• First yield forecast (F0) will be

given by IEG using econometric

model before the start of crop

season (pre-planting stage).

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• Efforts will be made by IMD to

develop yield forecast at planting

stage using agromet models.

• Mid season yield forecast (F2)

will be provided by IMD using

agromet model and crop areas

estimation will be provided by

SAC. The information will be

communicated to DAC to forecast

the crop production at national /

state/ district level.

• Pre-harvest yield forecast (F3)

will also be provided by IMD

using agromet model and crop

areas estimates will be provided

by SAC. Similar to mid-season

forecast, both these information

will be communicated to DAC for

final forecast of crops before

harvest.

10. Future Plans:

An Agro-Meteorological Field Unit

(AMFU) is proposed to be set up under

the aegis of the Joint Director, Indian

Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

for North-Eastern Hill Region, Tadong,

East Sikkim. The main functions of the

Agro-Meteorological Field Unit (AMFUs)

will be as under:

• Prepare Agro-met Advisory

bulletins at block levels.

• Monitoring and coordination of

activities of AMFUs under its

area of operation & agro-

climatic zone level review

meetings.

• Networking to expand the

outreach of AAS up to village

level. Induce information

technology and private public

partnership to expand outreach.

• Management of Agro-met

observatory network.

• Securing inputs from DAMUs to

prepare state level advisory

bulletin.

• Assessment of impact of

inclement weather on crop at

agro-climatic zone level.

• Preparation of agro-climatic zone

level agro-climatological

information.

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• Collate crop information from

concerned agencies and provide

the same to DAMUs.

• Prepare Agro-met products for

respective districts.

• Set up Agro-met Kiosks with

appropriate network for

dissemination of advisory

bulletins.

Published by Meteorological Centre, India Meteorological

Department, Baluwakhani, Gangtok,Sikkim –

737103.