Aiding the local administration during extreme weather events:

Access to real time weather data helps in monitoring the extreme rainfall events and aid the local administration with timely information. The cyclone Nilam affected the East coast of the country during the period 31st October to 2nd November 2012. The AWS stations located in the coastal AP (Pedavegi & Amadalavalasa), Orissa (Ganjam and Kendrapara) and Tamil Nadu(Namakkal and Tindivanam) have recorded heavy rainfall between 120-240 mm during this period. The interpolated map of rainfall during this period was prepared by using NICRA AWS data. Using the map, further efforts were made to assess the flood affected area using remote sensing technique.

Assessment of flooded areas during Cyclone:

Continuous rains of more than 150mm during 2-3 days following the Neelam Cyclone during 1st week of November resulted in flooding of large tracts of cropped areas in coastal districts of AP. The extent of flooded areas were assessed through remote sensing data using MODIS 500m resolution spectral reflectance data available freely on internet.

Open Water Index (OWI), which is a combination of GVMI (Global Vegetation Moisture Index) and EVI (Enhanced Vegetation Index) is estimated from spectral data of NIR, RED, Blue and SWIR bands on MODIS Imagery. OWI is converted to Open Water Likelihood (OWL) which indicates the estimated fraction of water in the pixel. Extensive flooding could be observed in the mandals of Nagayalanka, Konduru, Machalipatnam, Karthivennu, Kalidindi, Kaikaluru, Mandavalli and Vijayawada in Krishna district. Drainage network is derived from ASTTER 30m DEM data.

Piloting village level Agromet Advisories to aid farmers:

In order to better target farmers, 25 pilots are being tried under AICRPAM network where in the NICRA project village, KVK in the district and AICRPAM centre in the SAU are linked. The advisory in each of these villages are provided based on the real time filed level information from the village provided by the field information facilitation (FIF) to the subject expert who in turn generates the advisory and disseminates to the target village through KVK.

The impact of such pilots have been assessed in Akola and Bangalore districts. Scientists at Akola Centre provided advisories to selected farmers in yelgaon village during November to February on controlling disease and pest. viz. basal rot in onion and pod borer in chickpea triggered due to the high temperature and moisture. In farmers fields, who followed the advisory, 85-90% recovery in infected onion bulb was achieved in the seed plots in Yelgaon. Farmers who followed spray recommendation benefitted as the infestation remained below ETL. Further, early forecast and preventive measures viz. irrigation and burning of crop residue on field boundaries to create smoke to safe guard crops from low temperature also were quite helpful.

Similarly, rose farmers at Patrenahalli village in Bangalore rural district benefitted by Rs. 2000 to 4500 ha by following the micro level Agroadvisories provided by UAS, Bangalore on occurrence of rainfall and spray advice. Finger millet farmers avoided loss of produce by following Agromet advisories and postponing the harvest during the cyclone period in the same village.

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