Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - Agricultural Meteorology Division

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Executive Summary
Minimum temperatures prevailed in the range of 4-6° over many parts of Jammu &
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. Cold wave along with ground frost conditions
prevailed at a few places over Haryana and in isolated pockets of Punjab, Rajasthan, West
Uttar Pradesh, north Madhya Pradesh and some parts of east India during mid-period of last
week. Also chances of fall in minimum temperatures by 1-2°C over parts of northwest and
east India during next 1-2 days. Farmers are advised to keep vigil and provide light,
frequent irrigation and arrange for smoking around the fields to protect standing crops from
frost / cold injury. However, the prevailing weather conditions are favourable for the growth
of wheat crop in these regions.
Scattered rain / snowfall occurred over Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh
during last week. Rain / snowfall is also likely to occur at many places over Jammu &
Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh after 24 hours. Farmers in these States are advised to
postpone irrigation to the standing rabi crops. Mainly dry weather prevailed over most of
the remaining parts of the country and either isolated rainfall or dry / mainly dry weather is
likely to occur. Farmers are advised to provide irrigation to the rabi crops which are at
critical stages (flowering / grain filling).
Farmers are advised to undertake sowing of cucurbitaceous and leafy vegetables in
Madhya Pradesh, sowing of groundnut, moong, urad and maize and planting of onion in
Orissa, land preparation and transplanting of boro rice in West Bengal and Tripura, planting
of sugarcane in Assam, nursery sowing of tomato, brinjal, chilli and sowing of cucurbits in
Jammu & Kashmir, sowing of cumin in Uttar Pradesh and sowing of water melon and
planting of sugarcane in Maharashtra.
Due to favourable weather conditions, incidences of thrips in onion, brinjal and
bhindi in Karnataka, leaf folder and stem borer (white ear) in thaladi rice in Tamil Nadu,
leaf eating caterpillar in gram in Madhya Pradesh, stem borer in rice (nursery) in
Chhattisgarh and pod borer in gram and aphids in rapeseed and mustard in Orissa are
noticed below economic threshold level (ETL). Farmers are advised to undertake
appropriate plant protection measures to control the pests and diseases, if their population
goes beyond ETL.