Agrometeorology is the study of weather and use of weather and climate information to enhance or expand agricultural crops or to increase crop production. Agrometeorology mainly involves the interaction of meteorological and hydrological factors, on one hand and agriculture, which encompasses horticulture, animal husbandry, and forestry.
It is an interdisciplinary, holistic science forming a bridge between physical and biological sciences and beyond. It deals with a complex system involving soil, plant, atmosphere, agricultural management options, and others, which are interacting dynamically on various spatial and temporal scales. Specifically, the fully coupled soil-plant-atmosphere system has to be well understood in order to develop reasonable operational applications or recommendations for stakeholders.
For these reasons, a comprehensive analysis of cause-effect relationships and principles that describe the influence of the state of the atmosphere, plants, and soil on different aspects of agricultural production, as well as the nature and importance of feedback between these elements of the system is necessary. Agrometeorological methods therefore use information and data from different key sciences such as soil physics and chemistry, hydrology, meteorology, crop and animal physiology and phenology, agronomy, and others. Observed information is often combined in more or less complex models, focused on various components of system parts such as mass balances (i.e. soil carbon, nutrients, and water), biomass production, crop growth and yield, and crop or pest phenology in order to detect sensitivities or potential responses of the soil-biosphere-atmosphere system.
Model applications still involve many uncertainties, which calls for further improvements of the description of system processes. A better quality of operational applications at various scales (monitoring, forecasting, warning, recommendations, etc.) is crucial for stakeholders. For example, new methods for spatial applications involve GIS and Remote Sensing for spatial data presentation and generation.
Furthermore, tailor-made products and information transfer are critical to allow effective management decisions in the short and long term. These should cover sustainability and enhancement strategies (including risk management, mitigation and adaptation) considering climate variability and change. Papers are invited addressing these problems in the context of agrometeorological applications in “atmosphere” as an actual and important contribution to the state of the art. [1] [2]
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not begin until the 18th century. The 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and more particularly, the development of the computer, allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather, in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved. An important branch of weather forecasting is marine weather forecasting as it relates to maritime and coastal safety, in which weather effects also include atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water.
Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences".
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to agriculture:
Evapotranspiration (ET) is a term used to refer to the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation and transpiration. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the local water cycle and climate, as well as measurement of it plays a key role in agricultural irrigation and water resource management.
Precision agriculture (PA) is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. The goal of precision agriculture research is to define a decision support system (DSS) for whole farm management with the goal of optimizing returns on inputs while preserving resources.
Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming, conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of agricultural land area. It is characterized by a low fallow ratio, higher use of inputs such as capital and labour, and higher crop yields per unit land area.
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. It is the application of a combination of sciences such as biology, chemistry, economics, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Professionals of agronomy are termed agronomists.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to sustainable agriculture:
Horticulture is the art of cultivating plants in gardens to produce food and medicinal ingredients, or for comfort and ornamental purposes. Horticulturists are agriculturists who grow flowers, fruits and nuts, vegetables and herbs, as well as ornamental trees and lawns.
Agroforestry is a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. This diversification of the farming system initiates an agroecological succession, like that in natural ecosystems, and so starts a chain of events that enhance the functionality and sustainability of the farming system. Trees also produce a wide range of useful and marketable products from fruits/nuts, medicines, wood products, etc. This intentional combination of agriculture and forestry has multiple benefits, such as greatly enhanced yields from staple food crops, enhanced farmer livelihoods from income generation, increased biodiversity, improved soil structure and health, reduced erosion, and carbon sequestration. Agroforestry practices are highly beneficial in the tropics, especially in subsistence smallholdings in sub-Saharan Africa and have been found to be beneficial in Europe and the United States.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Earth science:
The environmental impact of agriculture is the effect that different farming practices have on the ecosystems around them, and how those effects can be traced back to those practices. The environmental impact of agriculture varies widely based on practices employed by farmers and by the scale of practice. Farming communities that try to reduce environmental impacts through modifying their practices will adopt sustainable agriculture practices. The negative impact of agriculture is an old issue that remains a concern even as experts design innovative means to reduce destruction and enhance eco-efficiency. Though some pastoralism is environmentally positive, modern animal agriculture practices tend to be more environmentally destructive than agricultural practices focused on fruits, vegetables and other biomass. The emissions of ammonia from cattle waste continues to raise concerns over environmental pollution.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to natural science:
National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) was launched during February 2011 by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the funding from Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. The mega project has three major objectives of strategic research, technology demonstrations and capacity building. Assessment of the impact of climate change simultaneous with formulation of adaptive strategies is the prime approach under strategic research across all sectors of agriculture, dairying and fisheries.
Modelling frameworks are used in modelling and simulation and can consist of a software infrastructure to develop and run mathematical models. They have provided a substantial step forward in the area of biophysical modelling with respect to monolithic implementations. The separation of algorithms from data, the reusability of I/O procedures and integration services, and the isolation of modelling solutions in discrete units has brought a solid advantage in the development of simulation systems. Modelling frameworks for agriculture have evolved over time, with different approaches and targets
The Indian Institute of Soil Science is an autonomous institute for higher learning, established under the umbrella of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for advanced research in the field of soil sciences.
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil.
Elizabeth Pattey is a Principal Research Scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the leader of the micrometeorology laboratory at the Ottawa Research and Development Centre. Her research supports nationwide improvement in the environmental performance of agriculture, in support of the United Nations' Framework Convention on Climate Change and Canada’s Clean Air Act. She is the co-author for over 80 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and her areas of expertise include trace gas flux measurement techniques, process-based models, and remote-sensing applications.
BAITSSS is biophysical Evapotranspiration (ET) computer model that determines water use, primarily in agriculture landscape, using remote sensing-based information. It was developed and refined by Ramesh Dhungel and the water resources group at University of Idaho's Kimberly Research and Extension Center since 2010. It has been used in different areas in the United States including Southern Idaho, Northern California, northwest Kansas, and Texas.
Agriculture contributes towards climate change through greenhouse gas emissions and by the conversion of non-agricultural land such as forests into agricultural land. In 2019 the IPCC reported that 13%-21% of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses came specifically from the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Uses Sector (AFOLU). Emissions from agriculture of nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide make up to half of the greenhouse-gases produced by the overall food industry, or 80% of agricultural emissions. Animal husbandry is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
