Agrometeorology in Extreme Events and Natural Disasters

Despite the current technological advancement, agriculture is still a vital source of livelihood. It is essentially dependent on weather and climate, and adversely affected by extreme events in this respect. Over the past few decades, extreme events such as droughts, floods, storms, tropical cyclones and forest fires have destroyed economic and social infrastructure and at the same time endangered food security. The agricultural sector is affected through the impact on water resources, damage to crops, rangelands and forests, due to incidence of droughts, locust plagues and wildland fires. While natural hazards may not be avoided, the integration of risk assessment and early warnings, with prevention and mitigation measures, can prevent them from becoming disasters. Improved forecast accuracy and mroe focused information on the location, intensity and duration of climate extremes could underpin efforts to implement more effective risk management strategies. This book, based on state of the art knowledge on the science and application of agricultural meteorology needed to better cope with extreme climate events, should be of interest to all organizations and agencies engaged in planning disaster reduction strategies and mitigation of extreme events.

Dr. Haripada Das, former Deputy Director General of Meteorology of the India Meteorological Department was in-charge of the Division of Agricultural Meteorology, Pune and in that capacit, has been executing the operational and research projects of the Division. He has actively participated in many Agricultural Meteorology Programmes of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as a member/chairman/leader of several Working Groups and Expert Teams of the WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology. With over 35 years of experience in agrometeorological research and applications and teaching in various aspects of Agricultural Meteorology, Dr. Das has authored over 175 research papers and articles, as well as several other technical publications including WMO Techinical Notes and Training materials. He is a recipient of the award of the WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology for his outstanding contributions and exceptional service to the commission.