Name of the Project:

Integrated Agromet Advisory Service (Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa)

Starting date: 1994

Name of Officer-in-Charge/ Nodal Officer: Prof. S. Banerjee

Other members of the project: Dr. Mahasweta Bhowmick (Technical officer/ SMS)

Total staff: Two

Achievements:

The weather data from Kalyani Observatory is collected on daily basis and data on soil moisture is collected on weekly basis. The collected data is sent to IMD, Pune at weekly interval. The Agroadvisory bulletins are prepared in English and Bengali languages in each Tuesday and Friday. They are disseminated through Kishan Portal. The bulletins are regularly uploaded in University Website and IMD Website.

The feedback survey revealed that farmers used the AAS Bulletin in planning their various field operations like sowing, transplanting, irrigation, spraying of chemicals, harvesting and post-harvesting operations. As per the rainfall forecast, the farmers schedule the irrigation, pesticide application, etc. Advice given on seed rate, fertilizer dose, time of sowing, time of top dressing and other inter-cultural operations given in the bulletins are very much useful for the farming community. The farmers received the bulletin in time through mass media and about 65% farmers rated the bulletin as very good to excellent. All the farmers under survey rated the advisory as a useful information-provider which should continue.