A five-day Capacity Building Programme of Annual Group Meeting of All India Coordinated Research Project on Agro-Meteorology (AICRPAM) kicked-off in the Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), today.
Inaugurating the programme, the chief guest Dr Satbir Singh Gosal, Vice Chancellor, PAU, pointed to the changes in weather conditions in Punjab and their effect on major crops, especially wheat and rice, pest and disease incidence. He said that regional variability in projected temperature and rainfall changes across Punjab’s agro-climatic zones played a crucial role in agriculture. He further stressed on the importance of the capacity building programme for exploring new solutions to combat the influence of different weather hazards on crop and horticultural production of India. “This is a unique opportunity in which all the scientists from different parts of the country sit at a common platform and get hands-on training in recent analytical tools on agro-meteorology,” said Dr Gosal.
Dr SK Bal, Project Coordinator, AICRPAM, highlighted different activities of AICRP on Agro-meteorology, with sharp thrust on products developed and future plans of AICRPAM project at the national level. He also threw light on the importance of capacity building programme under AICRP on Agro-meteorology for the development of operational products for farming community.
Earlier, in her welcome remarks, Dr PK Kingra, Head, Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Meteorology, hoped that the capacity building programme would equip and expose the scientists to the modern tools and softwares to strengthen research in agro-meteorology to address climate challenges.
Dr PK Sidhu, Principal Scientist and scheme in-charge (AICRPAM), coordinated the programme and proposed a vote of thanks.
Dr MS Bhullar, Director of Extension Education, PAU; and Dr VK Singh, Director, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad, were among the dignitaries present on the occasion. Agro-meteorologists from across the country are participating in the programme which aims at addressing the climate-related challenges in agriculture.