Two Short Courses on “Database Analysis and Management in Climate Variability and Rainfed Agriculture” under National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) were organized during 21- 25 February, 2012  and 27th  February to 2nd  March, 2012  by Project Coordination Unit, AICPRDA at CRIDA, Hyderabad. The program was conducted as a capacity building measure under NICRA. The topics covered are i) concepts of database management ii) working experience of Weathercock software to analyse climate data  iii) concepts of Remote sensing and GIS for spatial database design iv) updation and maintenance of  the designed web pages of a centre using Joomla software v) statistical procedures for analysis of data of rainfed experiments  vi) minimum data sets for cropping systems  vii) analysis of Input and Output energy data in rainfed agriculture  viii) rainwater management – data analysis ix)  economic analysis of resource conservation technologies and X) updating of Agricultural Field Experimental  Information systems (AFEIS).

The pedogoy include the theory and practical (hands on experience) on various topics. Participants include the scientists, technical officers/assistant and RA/SRF (under NICRA) from the network centres of AICRPDA viz 25 participants in the first course   (15 scientists, 2 technical and 8 RA/SRFs) from 11 centres  and 28  participants in the  second  course  (10 scientists, 6 technical and 12 RA/SRFs) from 12centres. The resource persons for the two short courses include the scientists from CRIDA and PC Units of AICRPDA and AICRPAM.

Dr.B.Venkateswarlu, Director, CRIDA in his inaugural address of the first short course emphasized on the importance of database management, data analysis and interpretation using various tools/methods/software and advised the participants to apply all these at their respective centres in an efficient manner. Dr.G.R. Maruthi Sankar, I/c, PC(AICRPDA) gave a brief on the short course. Er. R.Nagarjuna Kumar, Scientist (Computer Applications) was the Course Coordinator. Other coordinators are. Drs. G.R.Maruthi Sankar, G.Ravindra  Chary and Mr. AV.M.Subba Rao.

In the inaugural address of the second short course, Dr.G.R.Korwar, I/c Director, advised the participants to learn hands on all the data analysis, management and weather analysis, which are directly useful for use at respective centres. Dr. G.Ravindra Chary, Principal Scientist (Agronomy) & Course Coordinator gave a brief on the short course. Other coordinators are   Dr. G. R. Maruthi Sankar,  Er. R.Nagarjuna Kumar and Mr. A. V. M. Subba Rao. In the valedictory function, Dr. B. Venkateswarlu, Director, CRIDA, advised the participants to apply all the techniques / methods learnt to apply in climate / weather analysis for various interventions to be adopted in NICRA villages and also database management.