Weather based thumb rule models for formulating the crop insurance schemes for wheat in Punjab

Abstract

<p>Weather based crop insurance schemes play an important role in helping the farmers recovering their financial losses incurred due to aberrant meteorological parameters. Wheat is a major winter season crop grown in Punjab state. To formulate the weather based “weekly and monthly thumb rule models” for predicting the high yield of wheat, a study with meteorological and crop data (2007–2008 to 2021–2022) was conducted for three major wheat growing locations in the state. The results revealed that ideally the monthly maximum/minimum temperatures/rainfall/sunshine duration during the months of December, January, February and March in the range of 20–23 ℃/5–9 ℃/0–38 mm/5–8 h, 17–20 ℃/3–8 ℃/2–57 mm/4–6 h, 19–25 ℃/5–11 ℃/0–79 mm/5–8 h and 25–30 ℃/10–15 ℃/0–56 mm/8–9 h, respectively are optimum for high yield of wheat. The ideally humid (maximum/minimum relative humidity between 90%–97%/36%–63%) weather from November to February is favourable for optimum growth and development of wheat crop. Similarly, the maximum/minimum temperatures/rainfall/sunshine duration for anthesis and grain filling stage in the range of 14–23 ℃/3–10 ℃/0–55 mm/2–9 h and 18–30 ℃/5–15 ℃/0–26 mm/4–10 h are favourable for high yield of wheat crop. The maximum temperature of >18 ℃ during grain filling stage is optimum for potential yield of wheat. While the abiotic stresses like heavy rainfall, heat stress during grain filling stage are not favourable for the productivity of the crop. So, these critical limits of weather parameters are the basis for providing the weather based insurance to the farmers of the region.<strong></strong></p>