ECONOMIC USE OF AGRO METEOROLOGICAL ADVISORY BULLETINS (AABs) AT FARMER

N. ARUNKUMAR¹*, A. SOLAIMALAI², D. JAWAHAR³, R. VEERAPUTHIRAN⁴, V.U.M. RAO^5
1AICRPAM (NICRA) Project, Agricultural Research Station, TNAU, Kovilpatti, India
²AICRPAM (NICRA) Project, Agricultural Research Station, TNAU, Kovilpatti, India
³AICRPAM (NICRA) Project, Agricultural Research Station, TNAU, Kovilpatti, India
⁴Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai, India
⁵AICRPAM Co- Ordinating unit, CRIDA, Hyderabad, India
* Corresponding Author : arunan.agri@gmail.com

Received : 19-11-2015     Accepted : 07-12-2015     Published : 21-12-2015
Volume : 7     Issue : 14       Pages : 879 - 882
Int J Agr Sci 7.14 (2015):879-882

Keywords : Agro Met, Bulletins, Economic impact, Tamil Nadu
Academic Editor : Jesslyn F. Brown, A. Balusamy, Ramaraj A.P.
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of AICRPAM - NICRA for the research.
Author Contribution : None declared

The influence of weather on agriculture is essential to plan the activities like sowing, irrigation and plant protection etc. Based on the weather forecast given by RMC, IMD, Chennai, location specific agro-advisory for chillies were formulated and communicated to farmers of Vavidamaruthur and Aylankudi of Madurai districtin the form of Agro Meteorological Advisory Bulletins. The feedback data were collected from the AAS and NON-AAS farmers on utilization of weather forecast elements during the crop season and finally the economic impact was analyzed. The ratio score (%), H.K score and RMSE values proved that the predicted rainfall forecast was higher on day 4 for both the identified villages. Through reduced input cost viz., reducing the cost of irrigation and the cost of plant protection, the AAS farmers received an increased net profit of 8.9 % at Vavidamaruthur and 7.3 % at Aylankudi, when compared to the NON-AAS farmers.