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| Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology |
Bhubaneswar, June 28: Keeping in view the recent climate change, variability and the importance of weather on agriculture in Orissa, the state government has decided to introduce a postgraduate department of agricultural meteorology under the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) here.
The government has also allocated Rs 17,000 crore to undertake a study on climatic changes in the next five years. The amount will be shared between the state government and the Centre.
The course will focus on a long-term development plan to deal with ongoing climatic changes. From the current academic year (2011-12), five seats are available for a two-year MSc programme in agricultural meteorology at OUAT.
“Students graduating from the department will have tremendous employment scope in government as well as private institutions,” OUAT officials said.
Recently, the ministry of earth sciences, government of India, started operating agro-advisory service projects in all 10 agro-climatic zones of the state. Only students passing out from the agricultural meteorology course would be eligible for appointment under these projects. In a recent development, two scientists joined the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Bhanjanagar for the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project sponsored by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It is proposed that this project will be extended to all 30 districts of the state. Students can also join as scientists and assistant professors in state agricultural universities, ICAR, Space Application Centre and Indian Space Research Organisation.
Interest shown by private insurance companies in agriculture sector has also created a lot of job opportunities for postgraduates in agricultural meteorology.
Similarly, the World Meteorological Organisation has reported the global shortage of agro-meteorologists. “Research opportunities for higher studies and research are available in developed countries like the US, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.,” said an official.
During this MSc Programme, students will get exposure in subjects like meteorology, climatology, micrometeorology, hydrology and drought meteorology, climate change studies, crop weather modelling, agro-meteorological instrumentation, remote sensing and geographic information system applications.