PUNE, JULY 19: With the demand for food projected to increase by 80 per cent by 2002, climate and agriculture experts have recognised the need for intensive study of relationships between crop and weather products, to minimize losses due to the vagaries of weather changes.To enhance the understanding of climate fluctuations on crops, a 12-day `Roving seminar on crop yield weather modelling' has been organised by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and sponsored by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) at IMD Training Institute, Pashan.At the inauguration today, by Dr Arun Nigavekar, Vice-chancellor of University of Pune, the 20 participants drawn from national meteorological services, universities and research institutes in India, and two from Nepal, were presented with a training manual on crop yield weather modelling prepared by Dr Rene Gommes, co-ordinator of agrometeorology section of Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO. He will lecture on the fundamentals of crop modelling, with practical exercises.Dr Gommes explained that crop modelling is crucial for the success of national food security programmes, crop management and disaster anticipation.Dr R R Kelkar, Director General of IMD, recently elected as executive committee member of WMO, said that while we cannot control weather, we must learn to live with it.``The IMD will spend the Rs 3.5 crore allocated for it in the Ninth Five-Year Plan on buying instruments, remote sensing and on crop yield weather modelling,'' he announced.Dr Nigavekar stressed the importance of conducting a large number of training workshops for farmers to increase their understanding of weather production and crop yield. ``What needs urgent research is how the world agriculture will respond to extremes such as prolonged drought,'' he said.The IMD, one of the oldest national meteorology departments in the world, carries a long tradition of training in agriculture since the Agriculture Meteorology Division was started under the leadership of Dr L A Ramdas in 1932.This seminar is the third after two successful seminars in Tanzania and South Korea in 1998.Dr U S De, Additional Director-General of IMD, and M V K Shivkumar, chief Agriculture Meteorology Division, WMO, also spoke on the occasion.
