Usability of estimated soil moisture derived from gridded rainfall in agricultural operations

Abstract

Soil moisture information has not been used extensively under PAN India mode operationally in the country due to sparse network of soil moist ure measuring st ations. Ef fort has been made to est imat e the soil moist ure using gridded rainf all dat a using soil wat er balance (SW B) model and subsequently to compare quantitatively with insitu soil moisture measured by gravimetric method. It is observed from the quantitative validation with ground observations that during monsoon season the accuracy with the observed was found to be fairly accurate from the early part of the July to the end of monsoon when the soil was almost recharged with the rainfall. One of the limiting factors is that during dry period and in the low rainfall areas accuracy is relatively low. Thus, the soil moisture information generated using gridded rainfall data can be used from the second month (July) of monsoon season to the end of t he monsoon season on PAN India mode for irrigation scheduling and determination of sowing dates and for contingency crop planning etc.