Chapter 25: Agrometeorological services to cope withrisks and uncertainties 441
25.3. Operational Agrometeorological Services to Cope with Risks
25.3.1
United States (U.S.A.)
The u.s.National Weather Service (NWS) was created in 1870 and was officially transferred to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1891 and then to the De- partment of Commerce (DOC) on June 30, 1940. As early as 1941, operational ag- rometeorological services were provided for orchardists under DOC and USDA weather, climate, and agricultural activities. The farmers were advised on con- ditions suitable for spray on fruit trees. Pioneering research at USDA resulted in the publication of "Atlas of Climatic Types in the United States 1900-1939" (Mo- tha et al. 2006), categorizing climate by moisture regimes, providing definitions of effective precipitation, the use of vegetation as climatic indicators, and discus- sions of climate variations. While the meteorological requirements of USDA are numerous, they can be categorized into four basic areas. They include: current measurement and observational data and services; climate services including the summarization of historical weather data, the analyses of climatological data to characterize climate conditions or regimes for different geographical areas or time periods, and the development of normals, freeze probabilities, and drought indi- ces; forecasting services including the prediction of future weather events or cli- matic conditions and their associated probabilities that impact agriculture, forest- ry and rangelands; and other services such as consultation, analyses of particular
Chapter 25: Agrometeorologicalservices to cope withrisks and uncertainties 445 weather events, interpretation of forecast materials, monitoring and summarizing recent weather events, weather briefings and summaries, special studies and anal- yses, and user education (Moth a et al. 1997; Rippey et al. 2000). USDA has a vast need for weather and climate data to assist agriculturalists with their management operations, which include strategic decisions such as what to plant, or tactical de- cisions including when to irrigate. As a result, USDA agrometeorological services that assist farmers directly or indirectly in their decision-making process require a detailed set of weather information. Based on this information, certain operation- al agrometeorological services have been developed by USDA of which the most important are as follows:
25.3.1.1
Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin (WWCB)
In 1872, the then "Division of telegrams and reports for the benefit of commerce"
in the War Department began publishing the "Weekly Weather Chronicle" for the benefit of commerce and agriculture. Itevolved into the present Weekly Weath- er and Crop Bulletin (WWCB). Itcontains a global summary of weather for each week and also provides information pertinent to regional, national, and interna- tional agricultural weather. Detailed maps and tables of agrometeorological in- formation for appropriate seasons along with a summary of weather and crop in- formation are provided. In the bulletin, the report usually discusses crop weather conditions suitable for field work and crop development, pests and disease out- break, soil moisture conditions, crop progress, and livestock conditions. The bul- letin is an effective means of distributing weather information to farmers and the public. The WWCB has been cooperatively produced by USDA since 1978. The users of this agrometeorological service range from farmers to marketing agencies of agricultural products.
25.3.1.2
Joint Agricultural Weather Facility (JAWF)
This is a global agrometeorological service which was established in 1978 and serves as USDA's overall focal point for weather/climate information and agricul- tural impact assessments. The JAWF was created as a world agricultural weather information center, located in USDA, and is jointly staffed and operated by the De- partments of Commerce and Agriculture. The primary mission of this facility is to monitor global weather and determine the potential impacts on agriculture. The JAWF provides information on weather related developments and their effect on crops and livestock. This information in turn helps the decision-makers in formu- lating crop production forecasts and trade policy. In addition, JAWF developed a Data Base Management System (DBMS),which effectively manages a global weath- er, climate, and agriculture data base for analyses. GIS techniques are utilized in the products of DBMS, which enhance the analytical capability of the agrometeo- rologists to produce crop-weather assessments. In May 1996, a JAWF field office (a
weather/GIS data center) was established at the Mississippi State University (MSU) to meet the local demands for agricultural weather information required for re- search and production agriculture in the Delta growing region. The main mission of this facility is to ensure collection and archival of vital agricultural weather data in the Mississippi Delta. This center provides weather and climate data, crop prog- ress information, tailored products using GIS, and weekly weather briefings to re- searchers, producers, county extension agents, and agricultural industries in the Delta. A product called "Node above white flower five rule" is an unique agrome- teorological product developed from the research at the center. The cotton plant- ing recommendation is based on soil temperature and other agrometeorological products from this center.
25.3.7.3
U.s. Drought Monitor
Comprehensive weather, water, soil moisture, mountain snow amount, and cli- mate observations are the foundations of monitoring and assessment activity that alerts the nation to impending drought. An operational drought product called the U.S. Drought Monitor was established in 1999 and since then has been con- sidered a major agrometeorological service to the nation. JAWF contributes to the Drought Monitor. Itmonitors drought conditions including aerial extent, sever- ity, and type around the country. Over the last 6 years, this product has become a highly successful agrometeorological tool for assessing the development and dura- tion of drought conditions. The significant reason for the outstanding success of this agrometeorological service is the process of information by many experts lo- cated across the country. The Drought Monitor is a dynamic product, the uses of which range from farmers to government policy-makers.
25.3.7.4
National Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Water and Climate Center (WCC)
NRCS's cooperative Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecast (SS/WSF) program provides farmers and other water management groups in the western states with water supply forecasts to enable them to plan for efficient water use management.
The program also provides the public and the scientific community with a database that can be used to accurately determine the extent and amount of seasonal snow resources. The SS/WSF also provides nationwide climate services to the NRCS and USDA in partnership with other Federal agencies and universities. The SS/WSF operates a 7IS-station SNOTEL (SNOw TELemetry) network in the western U.S.
and a HI-station SCAN (Soil Climate Analysis Network) in 39 states throughout the U.S. and Caribbean. The SS/WSF program provides essential products from these data networks necessary to monitor and mitigate drought and floods. The SS/WSF program has also sponsored the development of the Applied Climate In-
Chapter 25: Agrometeorological services to cope withrisks and uncertainties 447 formation System (ACIS) for information dissemination, and the PRISM climate mapping technology used for spatial analysis worldwide.
25.3.2 India
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) was established in 1875. Itis the na- tional meteorological service of the country and the principal Government agency in all matters pertaining to agricultural meteorology. One of the major objectives of this department is to provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture (Rao 2004). India has diverse agroclimatic regions with large variations of rainfall ranging from 150 mm in the northwest/western part of the country to over 10,000 mm in the northeast region. Two thirds of the country comes under arid and semi-arid region. This area is prone to recurrent droughts. The vast Indian coastal belt is frequently affected by cyclonic storms. Over 40 million ha of land area in the country is vulnerable to floods, out of which, about 8 million ha is severely affected by floods each year. The country's hilly region is prone to land slides due to heavy rains and the Himalayan region to avalanches. These risks and uncertainties cause major setbacks to agriculture and the economy. Therefore, a number of initiatives are taken by the Government of India to improve various types of agrometeorological services for managing the weather related disasters, risks, and uncertainties as detailed below.
15.3.1.1
Flood meteorological offices and cyclone forecasting and warning systems
The IMD established 10 flood meteorological offices in areas prone to floods. These offices issue operational agrometeorological services like prevailing synoptic situ- ation, heavy rainfall warnings and quantitative precipitation forecasts which are highly useful to the all farmers in general and the poorest of the poor in particular across the nation. The IMD also has developed a well established organizational setup for observing, detecting, tracking, and forecasting cyclones and issuing cy- clone warnings. The frequency of occurrence of cyclones in eastern India is pre- sented in Figure 25.1. The cyclone warning bulletins are issued to state owned ra- dio stations and televisions and disseminated through landline telegrams, police stations, telex, telephones, fax, cell phones, bulletins to the press, internet, satel- lites, etc.
15.3.1.1
Agrometeorological advisories
The Agrometeorological Advisory Service in the country was started first in the India Meteorological Department in 1976. Agrometeorological advisories are bul-
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