Establishing an agrometeorological network in the Kurdistan region of Iraq
By Dr. Mohammed Aziz Saeed, [Edited by Kees Stigter, 1/3/’10]. Since the beginning of history, farmers and agricultural sectors have been concerned with the impact of climatic parameters and their hazards on agriculture production. Utilizing meteorological elements for improving and developing agricultural production will have high positive effect on income of marginal framers and on the economy and infrastructure of any region.
The automatic weather station
Since the beginning of history, farmers and agricultural sectors have been concerned with the impact of climatic parameters and their hazards on agriculture production. Utilizing meteorological elements for improving and developing agricultural production will have high positive effect on income of marginal framers and on the economy and infrastructure of any region.
Kurdistan region (north Iraq) is the major part of what is historically called the Fertile Crescent. This Kurdistan region is characterized by highly fertile agricultural lowlands and green mountainous land suitable for grapeyards (vineyards) fields. From 1999-2004 the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations gave a large deal of importance to this issue and established a very good agrometeorological network (with both manual and automatic weather stations) in Kurdistan. Since then valuable data have been recorded, collected and archived by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). These data are now used by researchers, as well as training and extension sectors in the region for different purposes.
Progress of technology in the world gave a signal to the authorities of the Ministry of Agriculture to think about renewing and feeding the network with highly developed automatic weather stations. To achieve this, this Ministry has decided to send a delegation to Vienna (Austria) to visit the Adcon Company which produces high technology automatic weather stations with base station control systems. The delegation was headed by Assistant Professor Dr. Mohammed Aziz Saeed, supervisor of the Meteorology and Astronomy Unit of the University of Salahaddin/Erbil with membership of:
1-Mr. Krmang Saber- Meteorology Expert, Ministry of Agriculture
2-Mr. Hasan Wahab-Director of Meteorology, Ministry of Transportation
3-Dr. Kais Kadhim-Agrimatco-Iraq.
During the one week visit in the period of Feb.10th–17th, 2010, the delegation listened to a number of seminars from Dr. Bernhard Pacher, the director of Adcon, of Eng. Stefan Winter, the Chairman of the Chamber of Agriculture of Burgenland Province and also Head of the Department of Plant Protection, University assistant Dr. Knoll, from the University of Agriculture, Vienna, Dr. Matthias Lentsch, Head of Plant production and protection from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Austrian Federal Government and the technical expert of Kapsch factory who manufactures the instruments. In addition to that, the delegation visited the Burgenland training field where an Automatic weather station is installed, and the Head Office of the Austrian Federal Government Meteorological Service, ZAMG, in Vienna, inspecting the sensor test area.
After a detailed discussion and conversation, as a pilot project the delegation decided to recommend importing 32 weather stations with full base station control system from Adcon to Kurdistan, to be installed in Duhok, Erbil, Sulaimani, Kirkuk and Garminan Provinces of Kurdistan region. They will be geographically well distributed, fulfilling the World Meteorological Organization standards. The network is capable to record instantaneously 11 meteorological elements and to transmit them to the base station every 15 minutes through local mobile phone towers which operate by satellites. The data will be registered in the base station in well prepared tables, and be shown graphically. The data will also be automatically available on the internet and can be utilized by end-users around the globe through selected usernames and a password.
The progam used is written in Jaava computer language, gives opportunity of the calculation of evapotranspiration and crop water requirements for selected strategic crops by using the modified Penman-Monteith equation. The program can measure leaf wetness, has the capability to detect the appearance of plant insects, plant diseases and winter night frosts. It has the ability of sending information to farmers by mobile phone about weather conditions and it has early warning systems. This project will serve the agricultural sector concerning all types of weather conditions in the region and their impacts on agriculture. The software will further enable Kurdistan researchers to implement their own, locally developed pest and disease models.
Dr. Mohammed Aziz Saeed
[Edited by Kees Stigter, 1/3/’10]
