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AGROMETEOROLOGICAL FIELD UNITS (AMFUS)

Agro-Meteorological Field Units (AMFUs) are multidisciplinary units responsible for preparation and dissemination of Agromet Advisories under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS)Project. OUAT in collaboration with IMD has setup 10 AMFUs in ten different Agroclimatic zones covering the entire state.

The AMFUs contribute to collect and organize climate/weather, soil and crop information and to amalgamate them with weather forecast to assist farmers in taking management decisions.

The 10 AMFUs operating in Odisha are

1. AMFU, Bhubaneswar (East & South Eastern Coastal Plain)
2. AMFU, Bhawanipatna (Western Undulating Zone)
3. AMFU, Chipilima (Western Central Table Land)
4. AMFU, Mahisapat (Mid Central Table Land)
5. AMFU, G. Udaygiri (North Eastern Ghat)
6. AMFU, Keonjhar (North Central Plateau)
7. AMFU, Kalimela (South Eastern Ghat
8. AMFU, Ranital (North Eastern Coastal Plain)
9. AMFU, Kirei (North Western Plateau)
10. AMFU, Semiliguda (Eastern Ghat High Land)

ACTIVITIES

1. Agromet Advisories

All AMFUs utilize the relevant meteorological products provided by IMD to generate both District and Block level weather based advisories in bilingual form (English & Odia)for management practices in agriculture after due consultation with the Scientists of concerned discipline and dissemination of the same to the farming community through all possible mode of communication (Email, WhatsApp Groups, IMD Websites, OUAT Website, etc). These Agromet Advisories are prepared and disseminated by AMFUs twice a week (Tuesday and Friday) for the respective districts and blocks under (GKMS) scheme.

2.Agromet Data

AMFUs record the meteorological observations from the IMD, Observatory and transmit on real-time basis to IMD for the preparation of several Agromet Products

3. Agrometeorology Trial

Uniform Agrometeorology trials on rice, maize, tomato, toria and potato are being conducted at selected AMFUs with the following major objectives.

• To evaluate the performance of crop varieties under staggered planting conditions.
• To evaluate the effect of weather parameters at different crop growth stages and productivity of crop varieties.
• To study the major pest dynamics and its effect on the crops.
• To calibrate the crop genetic coefficients.
• To evaluate the heat tolerance of different tomato and potato varieties.

5. Farmers’ Awareness Programme

Farmers’ Awareness Programmes are conducted in local language for one-day duration or half-day duration to enhance level of awareness among the farming community regarding recent advances in utilization of weather and climate information in farming operations for taking decisions on operational farm planning. Given the current concerns with climate change and climate variability and associated impacts on crop productivity, there is an urgent need to sensitize the farmers about such vagaries pertaining to their regions (on-going and projected) and adaptation strategies that can be considered to cope up with the aberrations. Farmers’ Awareness Programmes (FAP) act as the bridge between the experts and the farmers aiding them to better understand and use weather-based agromet advisory services and overcome weather and climate aberrations.