
Risk Assessment & Management of Hydro-climatic Hazards on Natural Resource Degradation & Agricultural Sustainability (IARI:NRM:04)
Indian Agriculture is facing risk on account of changing climate, increasing climate variability and degradation of natural resource. A spatio-temporal assessment of agro-climatic hazards, adaptive capacity and vulnerability is needed for quantifying the risk and identifying the hot spots. Strategies are required for managing land degradation and shrinking water resources. Recent advancement in geospatial techniques and availability of real time remote sensing data provides an opportunity to develop early warning system and its dissemination for risk reduction. It is necessary to develop knowledge based agricultural services along with a communication backbone for enhancing the knowledge base and dissemination process to the end users. Under this project, the development & evaluate composite indices, prediction rules, models for risk assessment of biotic and abiotic stresses activity along-with development of e-resources and web systems for effective dissemination of efficient adaptation strategies has been initiated.
Early warning for yields and pests in crops on spatial scale for their integrated management. Space Application Center, Ahmedabad (ISRO-SAC)
Forecasting of crop yield through remote sensing offers an alternative to the more resource-consuming field measurements and surveys typically used to estimate crop yields at regional to national scales. Models for yield estimation have been developed from empirical to semi physical to physiological growth simulation models. Each approach has its own usability and demerits. The statistical models viz.Regression Models; Time Series Models; Probabilistic Models; Nonlinear Models; Models based on soft-computing techniques (such as fuzzy regression and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), integrated models) may be developed and evaluated which may integrated the weather and remote sensing data. Crop yield losses in India due to pests (including diseases) range from 15-25 %. Loss in yield and quality of crop produce due to infestation of pests (including diseases) could be reduced considerably if their occurrence is known in advance so that timely remedial measures could be taken. Thus, there is a need to develop forewarning system, which can provide advance information for outbreak of pests. Weather plays a vital role in development of pest infestation in crops. Therefore, a technique for forewarning crop pests may be obtained on the basis of weather variables. Limitation of forewarning models for specific geographic locations could be overcome by use of satellite-driven weather and agromet data products. Resultant systems shall enable appropriate agro-advisory to minimize application of chemical pesticides, losses due to pests, financial burden and environmental cost.
DST- ICRISAT centre of excellence on climatic change research for plant protection: Pest and Disease management for climatic change adaptation funded from DST, New Delhi (CCPI)
National knowledge management center for agricultural education and research under Innovation Grants of National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) (CCPI)