India is primarily an agrarian country with more than half its population engaged in agriculture and allied activities. They contribute about 18% of India’s GDP. Agricultural activities, despite their importance, rely heavily on the unpredictable monsoon.
Delays in the monsoon, unseasonal or excessive rain, and extreme weather patterns like heat or cold waves can impact crop growth, as well as the quality and quantity of production.
Weather Forecast in Farming
Climate change has worsened the situation by disrupting weather patterns across the globe. According to a World Resources Institute study, global agricultural productivity might be reduced by 17% by 2050 as fertile farmlands face ruin due to extreme climate events caused by climate change. Flooding, inundation, drought, cyclones are depleting the soil of its nurturing properties for agriculture.
In view of such uncertainties, the weather forecast and its dissemination to farmers assumes more importance. Weather forecasts in farming are the answer to these problems.It is like having intelligence that helps farmers make better agricultural decisions by assessing the weather’s impact on crops. This intelligence helps make smarter decisions, such as optimizing irrigation, timing fertilization, and choosing the best days for fieldwork to enhance productivity.
A study by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute in Telangana found that farmers who followed weather forecasts in farming could adjust their planting decisions, highlighting forecasts as a vital climate adaptation tool for agriculture.
Weather forecasts in farming boost agricultural production by reducing risks and losses, while also conserving resources through improved nutrient and water use efficiency. Accurate medium-term and real-time weather updates can mitigate weather impact on crops.
A farmer could save water and money by skipping irrigation when rain is expected. Similarly, agricultural weather forecasts would lead to farmers choosing the optimum time and rate to apply fertiliser. Farmers can delay fertilizer application if rain is forecast to prevent runoff and ensure there is adequate soil moisture
Read also: The Importance of Soil Health and How to Maintain It
Weather based farming
Weather forecasts in farming makes agriculture more efficient along with encouraging cost-saving farming methods. Weather-based farming counters the effects of weather aberrations which may cause
- Physiological under-performance by crops
- Physical damage to crops
- Soil erosion and
- May render the agricultural inputs ineffective.
Weather based farming relies on weather information, especially in precision agriculture which emphasises accuracy and control while growing crops. This practice uses modern technology like GPS, satellite imagery, IoT, sensors, drones, and AI to optimize farming by analyzing data.
These technologies provide real-time data to map and monitor conditions, enabling final conclusions to be drawn alongside weather forecasts. The farmers can then utilise this information to manage their farming decisions better and increase their produce. Weather-based farming techniques make agriculture more scientific by reducing losses caused by farmers’ reliance on intuition, experience, and observation to predict weather.
Farming efficiency tips
Weather based farming techniques coupled with modern agricultural practices bring in more efficiency in farming. These smart farming solutions increase agricultural productivity. Some of these farming efficiency tips would include methods like drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting. The former delivers water directly to the plant’s roots. It reduces water requirements while increasing crop yields. Similarly, rainwater harvesting is a cost-saving method that helps farmers collect and store water, providing valuable support during dry spells.
Cover cropping and crop rotation are interrelated practices that protect soil health as extreme climate events threaten this vital agricultural resource. Cropping is essentially planting specific crops to cover the soil during periods when the primary crops are not growing. Crop rotation is the practice of rotating the types of crops grown in a specific area each season. These two methods enrich the soil apart from preventing soil erosion.
Other farming efficiency tips include crop diversification, vertical farming, aeroponics, and hydroponics, where farmers use weather forecasts to reduce risk and increase productivity and income.
Crop insurance and farmer risk management
Weather forecast, weather based farming, efficient farming practices equip the farmer with the knowledge to reduce risk to both crops and their income. However, one of the most effective ways for farmers to protect their incomes from any harm caused to their crops by extreme climate events is to buy crop insurance.
Crop insurance builds a financial safety net around farmers while providing them much needed security. The University of Chicago study cited above also found that crop insurance changes the behaviour of farmers towards farming.
Farmers who purchased crop insurance expanded their cultivated land and increased up-front investments in seeds and fertilizer. With the safety net provided by insurance, they made larger investments despite forecasts suggesting they should reduce spending. In this way, insurance and forecasts work together as climate adaptation strategies: forecasts guide investment decisions, while insurance mitigates risk.
This study emphasizes the link between accurate forecasts guiding agricultural investments, leading to more prosperous farmers and a stronger economy. Crop insurance, meanwhile, played a complementary role because it increased cultivated land and upfront investment by about 12 percent.
This shows the important role that crop insurance plans can play in mitigating risks to farmers’ produce and incomes when used in a strategic manner with weather forecasts in farming.
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