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AP Govt constitutes scientific panel on drought forecast
As a follow-up to the proposal of Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) to constitute a technical committee to make an attempt on medium and long range forecasting to assist sector-specific drought intervention and planning and mitigation measures, the state government constituted a scientific committee to monitor weather updates and to develop improved medium and long range
Amaravati: As a follow-up to the proposal of Andhra Pradesh State Disaster Management Authority (APSDMA) to constitute a technical committee to make an attempt on medium and long range forecasting to assist sector-specific drought intervention and planning and mitigation measures, the state government constituted a scientific committee to monitor weather updates and to develop improved medium and long range drought forecasting systems.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Aim is to evolve mandal and village-level advisories
- IMD, NRSC, Isro and other institutions on the panel
The government has already declared 301 mandals as drought-affected in the state and as part of the drought intervention schemes, a state Drought Monitoring Cell (DMC) with an inter-departmental team was constituted and housed at the State Emergency Operation Centre of APSDMA.
The drought monitoring cell is monitoring the drought situation in the State and appraising the government and line departments on situation advancement and progress of drought intervention schemes.
The government observed that effective drought forecasting system forms the backbone of advanced intervention planning and conceiving short and long term drought proofing measures. In the current scenario, national and state level agencies are issuing regional and district level advisories in various time scales.
The government opines that an improved forecasting system that can give village level or mandal level drought advisories at medium and extended range time scales is found essential to assist farmers in advanced mitigation planning.
The government observed that implementing medium range forecasting system for the current season and long- range forecast for the coming agricultural season would require institutional collaboration and sharing of data and technology.
The government, in a recent order, constituted a scientific committee consisting of representatives from India Meteorological Department, National Remote Sensing Centre, Satish Dhavan Space Centre, Isro, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, AP Space Application Centre, director, Ground Water Board, AP, Central Water Commission, Acharya N G Ranga Agriculture University, AP Water Resources Department, director, Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture, AP State Development Planning Society.
The terms of reference of the Scientific Committee includes review of current drought monitoring systems and identification of enhanced monitoring requirements, to analyse weather forecasts issued by national and international agencies and make tailor-made mandal/district level weather forecast for medium and long- term time scales, to develop drought forecasting system for AP based upon weather updates, satellite inputs, multiple drought indicators, drought monitoring indices, surface water data, ground water data, reservoir storage level and situation reports from field departments, based on field data collection using tools like ECrop, etc., to issue area specific weekly scientific advisories for agriculture and horticulture sectors, to develop district drought distribution model informing the spatial distribution of droughts and associated risks in the field .
The government has directed that the committee should conduct necessary meetings and furnish recommendations and technical guidance towards developing the forecasting models and advisories.
