Context: Scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has forecasted the impact of the hot weather on crop yield in Punjab and Haryana where InfoCrop is one such forecast tool.
About InfoCrop:
It is India’s only dynamic crop simulation model.
It is developed and released by IARI in 2015.
It aims to study the long-term impact of climate change and crop management practices on yield.
It is a process based dynamic (real time) simulation model to calculate the growth of yield of 11 crops.
11 crops: paddy, wheat, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, pigeon pea, chickpea, soybean, groundnut, potato and cotton.
It also has the life cycle data for almost all the local varieties of those 11 crops.
It provides data on the effects of weather, soil and crop management (sowing, seed rate, organic matter nitrogen and irrigation) and pests.
It provides daily and summary outputs on growth and yield parameters, nitrogen uptake and balance, greenhouse gas emissions, soil water.
It performs better for tropical regions.
In 2004, InfoCrop version 1 was launched whereas version 2.1 was launched in 2015.
Other forecasting models:
The Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre provides pre-harvest forecasts for eight major crops at the national, state and district levels.
It works under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Other key facts:
Currently, India does not have a system to forecast crop loss due to heatwaves or other extreme weather conditions.
