Effectiveness and Usefulness of Weather Based AgroAdvisory services among farmers of Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Agricultural production depends upon many factors, of which weather is the major factor. Farmers do prevent crop failure and obtain high yields with greater financial returns if they are aware of real-time weather parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall. Farmers might manage agricultural activities, from crop selection to post-harvest handling, by having the proper weather information at the right time. This helps them reduce crop losses. District AgroMeteorological Unit (DAMU) under the scheme named GKMS (Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva) was set up at KVK, Darsi, Prakasam district. Bilingual AAS bulletins were prepared and disseminated to farmers. An Ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the present study. To study the effectiveness and usefulness of weather-based agro advisory services a random survey was done among 60 farmers of the Darsi block. Results revealed that farmers were in the range of young age to middle age category, most of them had secondary education and rely on television and newspaper for weather data. Results also revealed that 45.00 per cent responded as messages were moderately accurate, 50.00 per cent responded as messages were useful. The majority of farmers (60.00) checked the weather forecast before spraying insecticides and pesticides. Awareness should be created among farmers to use the weather forecast to select crops suitable for weather conditions.