Terms of Reference (TOR) for Agro-meteorology Program

1. To provide reliable and efficient agro-met advisories to farming communities for better farm decision making
2. To coordinate timely and efficient dissemination of agro-advisories to the farming communities
3. To coordinate the Expert Group Meetings in order to make critical decisions regarding agromet advisories and services
4. To coordinate and collaborate close working modalities with NCHM, and other regional and international meteorology organizations
5. To coordinate and implement climate-based research in agriculture using latest modelling & simulation tools including validation and application of models (for eg. Phenology, morphological predictions, yields)
6. To conduct research on developing and adapting climate resilient technologies including modelling for Technology Extrapolation Domains (TED) for intensification and expansion of agriculture in locations with greatest potential for impact
7. To manage and coordinate the functioning and data collection from automated weather stations installed in the ARDC’s and government farms
8. To be the focal point for GIS & Remote Sensing and its incorporation in agromet decisions for better farm advisories
9. To carry out research and approaches at the eco-regional level including the assessment of socio-economic effects of weather/climate variability on food production
10. To be the focal point for collection and management of Crop Damage data and to come up with timely contingency plans using forecasts/projections

Sl.No	Agency	Work Responsibility
1.	Agrometeorology Program, ARED, DoA	Technical and Financial backstopping Overall coordination & monitoring Provide final agromet advisory to be disseminated Build and maintain institutional linkages with international and national agencies Develop and review protocol for agro-meteorology and climate research Initiate crop modelling and produce crop suitability maps
2.	Agriculture Research and Development Centre (ARDC) and National Centre for Organic Agriculture (NCOA)	Regularly update and validate the crop calendar Feeding the crop information in ADSS Conduct and coordinate ToT and Farmers Field School (FFS) Propose budget for agromet related activities at the regional level Monitoring and maintenance of research based agromet AWS Conduct agrometeorology research
3.	National Plant Protection Centre	Develop and revise the pest calendar Regular feeding and validation of pest information in the ADSS Be a part of FFS and ToT coordinated by ARDCs To provide pest advisory services
4.	National Soil Services Centre	Incorporation of relevant Soil information into ADSS Develop and update data on available soil maps Be a part of FFS and ToT coordinated by ARDCs
5.	Dzongkhags/Gewogs	To provide regular updates on Crop & Pest information to ARDCs Facilitate ToT and FFS Effectively disseminate the advisories provided to farmers Provide regular feedback on the system and services to ARDCs