Course

Theory

Unit I

Meaning and scope of agricultural meteorology; components of agricultural meteorology; role and responsibilities of agricultural meteorologists.

Unit II

Importance of meteorological parameters in agriculture; efficiency of solar energy conversion into dry matter production; meteorological factors in photosynthesis, respiration and net assimilation; basic principles of water balance in ecosystems; soil-water balance models and water production functions.

Unit III

Crop weather calendars; weather forecasts for agriculture at short, medium and long-range levels; agromet advisories, preparation, dissemination and economic impact analysis; use of satellite imageries in weather forecasting; synoptic charts and synoptic approach to weather forecasting.

Unit IV

Concept, definition, types of drought and their causes; prediction of drought; crop water stress index, crop stress detection; air pollution and its influence on vegetation, meteorological aspects of forest fires and their control.

Unit V

Climatic change, greenhouse effect, CO₂ increase, global warming and their impact on agriculture; climate classification, agro-climatic zones and agro-ecological regions of India.

Practical

Preparation of crop weather calendars – Development of simple regression models for weather, pest and disease relation in different crops – Preparation of weather based agro-advisories – Use of automated weather station (AWS).

To impart theoretical and practical knowledge of physical processes occurring in atmosphere and techniques used in meteorology.