WEEKLY AND MONTHLY THUMB RULE MODELS FOR FORMULATING THE WEATHER BASED INSURANCE SCHEMES FOR RICE IN PUNJAB.

Weather based insurance schemes can help the farming community in bearing the losses in crop yield due to weather aberrations. So, a study was conducted to develop weather based "Weekly and Monthly Thumb Rule Models" for high yield of rice. The daily meteorological and crop data (2000-2019) for three locations (Ludhiana, Patiala and Amritsar) were analysed to develop the limits of favourable meteorological parameters for rice crop in Punjab. The results revealed that ideally humid (maximum relative humidity between 51-88%) weather from mid-May to mid-August is favourable for optimum growth and development of vegetative stage in rice. The warm temperature (>33°C) during the grain filling period after the flowering stage of rice is favourable for grain yield. However, heavy rainfall in the months of August and September with cloudy weather (sunshine hour <9.2 hour) are not favourable for its productivity. Ideally the monthly maximum/minimum temperatures/sunshine duration in the range of 24-43°C/18-29°C/ >12.2 hours, 26-38°C /19-37°C/ >11.7 hours, 25-36°C /19-29°C />11.5 hours and 23-36°C /10-26°C />10.6 hours during the months of June, July, August and September, respectively are optimum for high yield of rice. Similarly, maximum/minimum temperatures/sunshine duration during the tillering, heading-flowering, grain filling stages of rice crop in the range of 31-38°C /22-29°C /2.2-10.3 hours, 31-36°C /21-28°C /3.3-11.2 hours and 29-36 °C /20-27°C /1.1-9.7 hours, respectively are optimum for good growth and high yield. In Punjab state rice is cultivated under assured irrigation conditions and so these critical limits of temperature and sunshine duration are the basis for providing the weather based insurance to the farmers of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]