#Monsoon2020 The need for Installation of Raingauges in every Revenue Village and Weather Station is the need of the hour, says Dr. Prakash Former Director of KSNMDC, Karnataka

Monsoon2020 and its Progress has a very strong bearing on rural population since 70 percent of our rural households depend on agriculture. Monsoons also ride over the overall business sentiment in the economy of India too. In the era of changing climate the farmers are continuously been threatened. Some reports have also mentioned about the future projections of climate change uncertainties about what form the climate change will take, how quickly it will develop and how extreme it will be. Ultimately there is a great need for better observations and analyses to document the past and current weather / climate and how it has changed with time. The need of the hour is to have data and data analyticson manyweather/climatological variables. The next big question is, are we providing enough data to for our farmers to help them adapt to climate variability? It so is observed that the reports about the observed patterns and the changes over are not yet well accounted for especially to address concerns at land parcel scale. The Indian economy has been taking significant economic hit because of yield variation due to weather / climate variability. Drastic Yield variations and loss of crops should be minimized to the least possible extent.

Dr V.S. Prakash

To help us get more clarity on Weather versus Climate, Editor, Agriculture World Dr. Lakshmi had a very serious discussion and a series of talks with Dr V.S. Prakash, Founder & Former Special Director, Karnataka State Natural Disasters Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC). He has served in the Ministry of Water Resources GoI, prior to joining Government of Karnataka as the Director, Drought Monitoring Cell, an autonomous body under Dept., of Science 7 Technology. The activities of Drought Monitoring Cell were enlarged and founded Karnataka State Natural Disasters Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC). His invaluable contribution to Karnataka in monitoring weather and climate variability details has been well appreciated beyond Karnataka State. He has also graced various platforms like being the Adviser / Registrar, International Institute of Information Technology - Bangalore (IIIT-B). Director,  DMC & KSRSAC, Faculty, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Groundwater Research & Training, GoI. Dr. Prakash is at present Member, Technical Expert Committee, Karnataka State Tanks Conservation & Development Authority.

Hobli /phirka / mandal - wise departure of rainfall from normal during June 1 to June 12, 2020

There are much of Weather extremes to talk about in recent times says Dr. Prakash starting the talk. These signs relate to an increase in the extremes resulting in more frequent weather related hazards / disasters - floods, hurricanes, cyclones, hail storm, gale wind and also meterological, agricultural, hydrological droughts. There needs to be a proper understanding of weather and climate which we seriously lack. Weather is said to arise from internal disturbance in the atmosphere and Climate involved not only the atmosphere but the oceans and the interactions with the other parts of the climate system. Apart from the usual weather data, it is imperative to know more about the weather / Climatic observations. Climatic observations are very important to detect the climate change. The spatial and temporal distribution needs to be analysed well. It is very important to analyse the soil moisture, soil temperature and precipitation also. Dr. Prakash emphasizes on the need for data in commensurate with its temporal and spatial variability, data analytics & tools for assessing crop / yield  at land parcel level.

We need to persue & have a goal of having raingauge in every revenue village & weather station in every hobli /phirka /mandal reiterates Dr. Prakash. Karnataka is the only state in India which has telemetric, GPRS enabled, solar powered rainguages located at an average 3.5 SqKms from each other i.e., in all of its Gram Panchayats. So the spatial resolution is high when compared to any other data for any other State. He developed crop water budgeting for different soil groups at Gram Panchayath scale + Moisture Adequacy Index + Relative Surface Soil moisture + Root zone soil moisture index. Index based on crop water budgeting at land parcel scale is more apt for the needs of tomorrow. Better the observation & data - better the prognosis / diagnosis says Dr. Prakash.

Hoblis with Blue color at places are adjoining Hoblis with Red color. It indicates the spatial variability of rainfall. 

He reiterates on persuing and having a goal of having raingauge in every revenue village and weather station in every hobli / phirka / mandal. Don’t you all think it makes a world of difference? He also goes on to Compare the rainfall anomaly of IMD with KSNDMC and think the need for having rain gauge at every Gram Panchayat needs to flag it and every state should dream of having it.  Accurate measurements are the need of the time #Monsoon2020.

Compare the rainfall anomaly of IMD with KSNDMC

We are only concerned with helping the farmers and helping them make better decisions to increase and improve the yield at any given conditions and help them from drastic environmental impacts. Knowing these Conditions will help them better plan their schedules on sowing, transplanting, fertilizer and pesticide applications in their fields. With these low cost techniques like installing raingauges at every gram panchayath level should be taken seriously and with diligent care so that we could record variability of rainfall and that could be the basis of learning how crops need to be taken care of with respect to irrigation which is a challenge in major drought stricken areas. Tasks like these will provide more reliable projections into the future also and could help the farmers tide over the variability pattern in a diligent manner. We hope this article provide insights that would be looked upon when planning on how to tackle regional weather / climatic changes.