1. What are weeds?

Weeds are the plant out of place. It competes with the main crop for nutrients, sunlight and water. The weed may be narrow leaf weed, broad leaf weed and sedges which may be annual, biennial or perennial depending upon its life cycle.

2. What are insects?

Insects are the small animals generally with 3 segmented body parts and 6 or more legs. Insects cause damage by chewing, sucking or piercing plant parts.

3. What are nematodes?

Nematodes are tiny parasitic worms which are microscopic in nature, meaning there by, invisible to unaided eye. All species of plant parasitic nematode feeds on the plant fluid through needle like oral stylet. They cause damage in the plant root system which sometime appears as galls or swollen point on the root system. The injured part may serve as the entry point for several diseases causing pathogen.

4. What are diseases?

In layman language, just like weeds are plants out of place, diseases are caused by the organisms out of place. It is the malfunctioning of plant cells and tissues that results form continuous irritation by a pathogenic agent or environmental factor and leads to development of symptoms. Diseases may be caused by many different types of plant pathogens.

5. How are the weeds, insects, nematodes and diseases related to weather?

In the suitable weather condition these can thrive well and wreck havoc on the crop cultivation and could be the major cause for severe yield loss. So, if weather condition in which they develop is known to us then we can apply control measures and thus maximize our yield and profit.

6. What is the importance of weather in agriculture?

Weather is one of the most important factors for cultivation of crop apart from seed and soil. Weather plays pivotal role in deciding the time of sowing of crop, its harvesting and various other farming operations in between.

7. Is weather the same thing as climate?

No. We experience weather locally, at one place and at one time. Weather can vary enormously over the course of one year (100 degrees F or more) and between one region and another. Climatology studies the average weather of the entire globe over centuries.

8. Why do we need weather data on regular basis?

Farmers can judge about the application of irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides from the weather data. Scientist particularly of agricultural field needs the weather data on regular basis for the advancement of their research work. Moreover this weather data can also act as forewarning system for several insects and pests of agricultural crops.

9. Why do we need the various parameters of weather data?

Temperature, moisture, rain, wind and light are the main weather parameters which have direct impact on the crop cultivation. Each has distinct role to play in the development of the crop.

10. Why disease and pest forecasting for crop cultivation is needed?

Since time immemorial, farmers/growers have been adopting cultivation practices according to guesstimate, which often results in the excess and non-judicious use of the pesticide, which have multiplier adverse effect on the farmers/growers net income.
For example: A grape grower on a conservative estimate sprays 18 times per acre @ Rs1000/- per spray for a disease without knowing its incidence or severity. The same farmer, if follows the pest and disease forecasting advice has to spray only 11 times, thus lessening its input cost in cultivation. Moreover, more the crop is sprayed more will be risk of pesticide residue, which is harmful for human consumption, and ultimately fetch less prices or more often rejection of their produce in International market.

11. Which weather parameters are needed for the disease forecasting of crop?

Temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), relative humidity, day length, leaf wetness and rainfall are the minimum weather parameter needed for the disease forecasting of crop.

12. Where should we position our weather station for the disease forecasting?

We should position our weather station containing minimum of the five sensors viz., temperature, relative humidity, day length, leaf wetness and rainfall at the representative site on the crop field.

13. How to select the representative site for the disease and pest forecasting?

The representative site means the area in the crop field, which is representative of the whole crop field. Meaning there by, the area or the portion of the crop field that show earliest incidence of the disease and pest, is the representative area for that particular field. The farmer/growers past experience is valuable in selecting the representative area at the crop field.

14. How much area can a weather station cover in relation with the disease and pest forecasting?

A weather station essentially measures the microclimate a plant at the representative area of the crop field. The wisely chosen representative area can help in predicting the disease and pest situation of more than forty acre with even topography.

15. What this site provides?

What could be more important to the modern agriculture business than the weather? When to seed, when to plant, when to fertilize, when to use pesticides, when to harvest? All this farming operation can be, in one way or other, affected by the weather. This site, agrimetindia.com empowers you with all the information you need concerning weather. By using agrimetindia.com you can manipulate and adjust your weather sensitive stages of crop, with significant odds on your side. Sometimes even a single day or two, earlier or later, can be very important to the success of a cropping season. Right now, as you work through the numerous weather-sensitive operations of the season, the weather "timing" factor is unknown. You could be scheduling the most weather-sensitive operation right in the middle of a forecast "Risky" period, when it would have been far better to start earlier or wait a few days. You would have zero odds on your side. If you use the other Forecasts (radio, TV, newspapers etc.) you know they are going to change their 3-5 day forecast each time you tune in. The agrimetindia.com forecasts never change. Your built-in character seldom changes with time.