Usability and Impact of Agromet Advisory Services for Kharif season in Jagtial, Telangana

The access to real-time weather information supports the farmers in deciding their day-to-day field operations efficiently. Agromet Field Unit (AMFU) utilizes the medium-range weather forecast of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for issuing agromet advisories at district level and disseminates them using a multimedia approach to reach a maximum number of farmers at every corner of the village in India. During Kharif 2023, a study was conducted to analyse the extent of impact of Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) that benefitted the farming community of Jagtial district in an economic way provided through AMFU, RARS, Jagtial. The rainfall forecast accuracy of Jagtial district was verified both in qualitative and quantitative terms for the Kharif season.The study for a survey on AAS used interview scheduling to collect real-time feedback information from the farmers of four villages of four different mandals namely Allipur, Pormalla, Shankarraopet and Polasa villages of Raikal, Medipalle, Gollapalle and Jagtial mandals respectively of Jagtial district to verify the usefulness of agromet advisories provided using the medium-range weather forecast and the significance of ICT tools in their dissemination. A survey was conducted with a total of 120 farmers on the basis of the village, usefulness of the weather forecasting service, its accuracy, their application in agricultural operations, and satisfaction to the agromet advisories. Tabular analysis, quantitative and qualitative verifications methods were used to derive the valid conclusions.The results revealed that there is moderate level (60.66 %) of rainfall accuracy for Jagtial district during southwest monsoon 2023 andthe AAS were highly useful to majority 70 % of the farmers for their day to day farm operations and whatsapp being 55 % as the best source of medium in receiving agromet advisories. The weather forecast was highly useful in performing farm operations at all stages of the crop, for pesticides spraying and harvesting to 44.2 %, 20% and 15.8 % of the farmers respectively. Majorly, 38.6 % and 28% of the farmers saved an amount of upto Rs. 1000 and Rs. 2000 in paddy cultivation in Kharif season 2023 by adopting the agromet advisory services.