Micro-level impact assessment of mobile based specific agromet advisory for farmers in Karnal, Haryana, India

The weather forecast and advisories have been helping the farming community to take advantage of prognosticated weather conditions and form the response strategy. Introduction of District Agro Met Units (DAMU) service by India Meteorological Department (IMD), helped farmers over different regions to minimize crop losses as a result of extreme weather conditions and helps to overcome negative impacts of changing climatic conditions on crop productivity. The study was conducted to analyze feedback received from farmers from three consecutive years 2020 to 2022 and revealed that numbers of farmers using AAB are significantly increased from 2020 to 2022. Crop situations of these farmers were compared with nearby fields having the same crop where forecast is not adopted by the farmers. Further net benefits obtained by the farmers were incurred from land preparation till the harvesting stage in rice and wheat crop. The net income of AAB followed farmers in rice and wheat crop were 4672 and 5992/ ha over NonAAS (Non agro-met advisory services) farmers. The farmers who have adopted the AAB in their day-to-day operations have realized additional benefit, the application of AAB based on current and forecast weather is a useful tool for enhancing the production and income at farm level.