Agricultural Meteorology and its Scope in Crop Production

Agro meteorology or agricultural meteorology refers to the branch of applied sciences that deals with the study of physiological conditions of the plants or animal’s environment. It also studies the relationship between crop production and the surrounding climatic conditions and includes horticulture, animal husbandry, forestry and others.

The significance of agro meteorology in crop production

• Guides in choosing the suitable cropping system

• Helps in deciding the dates of swing crops for maximum yield efficiency.

• Makes farming practices such as harrowing, weeding ploughing etc., cost efficient.

• Decreases the loss of fertilizers and other chemical compounds used on the field

• Helps in efficient management of water resources for irrigation practices.

• Guides with efficient harvesting of the produce.

• Helps in efficiently managing the outbreak of harmful diseases and pests.

• Makes the management of soils, formed as an action of weather, efficient.

• Assessing the weather disturbances such as floods, droughts, cyclones etc., and managing the crop production practices accordingly.

• Helps in safeguarding the environment efficiently.

• Helps in decreasing the losses incurred due to forest fires.

Future scope of agro meteorology in crop production

• Planning the production of crop efficiently by assessing the climatic conditions of the chosen area.

• Implementing farm operations according the weather of that area.

• Studying the relationship between the weather conditions and the crop planted in that area to forecast the crop yields in advance using the agro climatic ad agro spectral index with the help of remote sensing.

• Studying the relationship between the pests and diseases with the surrounding weather conditions for different crops.

• Outlining the different agro ecological and agro climatic zones and preparing an agro climatic analogue in order to use the correct information at the correct place o correct time

• Preparing a calendar for crops according to the weather.

• Forecasting the weather conditions in advance in order to generate advisories for maintaining the efficiency of the agricultural produce.

• To investigate the effects of weather o the environment of the soil in which the crop is being produced.

• To study the glass houses i.e., influence of weather in controlled environment.