Agrometeorology Of The Rice Crop

Opening remarks; Biological stresses; Cropping systems; Deterministic models; Recommendations.

Issues of global climate change; Emission of greenhouse gases; Ultraviolet-B radiation; Carbon dioxide and temperature; Simulation modeling.

Agricultural meteorology deals with the meteorological, hydrological, pedological and biological factors that affect agricultural production as well as the interaction between agriculture and the environment. This training manual is developed for the Training of Trainers (TOT) to effectively implement agro-meteorology at the local level through multiple methodologies tested in Lao PDR, such as climate field schools and group approaches, public announcement systems (loudspeakers), and school programmes. The manual is developed for the use of the Laos Climate Service for Agriculture (LaCSA) online system developed under the Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded project Strengthening Agro-climatic Monitoring and Information Systems (SAMIS) to improve adaptation to climate change and food security in Lao PDR. It is aimed for TOT, and the design is flexible so that any modules or lessons can be extracted and applied in field-level staff training with some local adjustments. The training can also help fill gaps between the producers of agrometeorological services and the farmers’ actual needs to improve their livelihood.

Crop loss assessment: background, rationale, and concepts; Component technology for crop loss assessment; Applications of pest and loss assessment technology to pest management.

Designed as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students of agriculture, it fulfills the need for an uptodate comprehensive information (as per the syllabus framed by ICAR) on the theoretical and applied aspects of agricultural meteorology. Illustrated with graphs, schematic representations, photographs and pictures, the scope of the book is divided into three major areas of study: 1. Discusses the basic aspects of agricultural meteorology; introduces the principal meteorological variables (with emphasis on radiation and temperature) that govern the atmosphere and highlights the causal factors leading to the global and local weather and climate variations like atmospheric pressure and winds, clouds, monsoon and precipitation. 2.Addresses the effects of weather on various crops and discusses applications of Hopkin’s bioclimatic law to mitigate the ill effects of weather on crop production; explains agroclimatic classification and discusses droughts and their management strategy with special reference to crops. 3.Deals with various types of weather forecasting and their techniques including weather service to farmers; explains crop growth simulation modelling—a newly emerging area in agricultural meteorology; focuses on influence of weather in relation to pest and disease outbreaks, discusses climate change and provides introduction to remote sensing. A special feature of the book is that it contains many indigenous examples related to the humid tropics. In addition, the book has many plates and information on basic and sophisticated meteorological equipment. A variety of chapter-end questions help develop students’ understanding of salient concepts and makes the material presented more meaningful.