The access to real time weather data supports the farmers in deciding their day-to-day field operations efficiently. District Agro-Met Unit (DAMU) utilizes the medium range weather forecast for issuing agro advisories at block level and disseminating the musing multimedia approach to reach maximum number of farmers at every corner of the village in India. During 2022-23a study was conducted to analyse the extent of impact of agromet advisories that benefitted the farming community of Nizamabad district through DAMU, KVK Nizamabad. The study was carried out in the month of March, 2023 using the platform of survey monkey using 103 whatsapp groups to collect the real time feedback information from the farmers to determine the extent of usage of weather forecasting service delivered during southwest monsoon 2022, northeast monsoon 2022, winter 2023 and determine the impact of DAMU, to know the accuracy and usefulness of advisories and importance of ICT tools in their dissemination. A total of 150 farmers responses have been recorded on the basis of block, usefulness of the weather forecasting service, its accuracy, their application in agricultural operations, satisfaction to the agromet advisories. The feedback from 150 farmers of Nizamabad district revealed that 81 % are receiving regular AAS bulletins out of which 68% are using them for their day-to-day farm operations with whatsapp being 78% best source for receiving agromet advisories and the district level rainfall forecast has high skill score in case of quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Weather, Agromet advisories, District Agro-Met Unit (DAMU), Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS)

From the present study, it is concluded that majority of the farmers are receiving regular agromet advisory bulletins and using them for their day-to-day farm operations with major response of satisfaction to the service of DAMU project with WhatsApp being the most preferable medium for them in receiving the advisories. Validation of qualitative and quantitative verification methods for southwest monsoon indicated that high skill score was observed for Nizamabad district forecast and moderate skill score for agri sub divisions. Hence, the forecast at block level need to be improved. It was also found out that progressive farmers from every village are taking a lead in providing the Agromet Advisories information to their fellow farmers by sharing the timely weather information and also adding them in Whatsapp groups. However, there is a need to focus on the mode of disseminating the weather advisories to reach the illiterate farmers.

B. Srilaxmi, P. Vijay Kumar, M. Suresh, B.V. Rajkumar, M. Swetha, S. Naveen Kumar and L. Sanjay (2023). Validation and Feedback Analysis of Agromet Advisory Services in Nizamabad district of Telangana under KVK Nizamabad. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(12): 385-389.