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The study was conducted to evaluate the impact of the Meghdoot mobile application-a weather-based agro-advisory service in cold arid Ladakh during 2020-21. A random sample of 100 registered farmers was selected which included 25 farmers each from Stok and Stakna villages and 50 farmers from Bazgoo village of Leh district. The data indicated that farmers of Leh district were very belittling of newspapers followed by radio. Almost, 70 per cent of registered farmers have followed information for agriculture practices through the Meghdoot application of agro-meteorology advisory services but non-registered farmers used to follow their traditional methods for agricultural practice due to a lack of knowledge of this application of agromet-advisory services. More than 50 per cent of farmers agreed that this application provided weather information in the local language with a mean score of 0.55. Similarly, in the case of wheat, an average yield superiority of 16.71 per cent was recorded in the case of registered farmers over non-registered farmers during 2020. The mobile application provided benefits to the registered farmers in comparison to non registered farmers of district Leh, Ladakh.

The study was conducted to evaluate the impact assessment of adoption of weather prediction using traditional knowledge and IMD based HMAARI Agro Advisory Services to understand the utilization efficiency of natural resources under cold arid region of Ladakh and to identify socio-economic status of agriculture farmers, their source of information, perception of farmers and their knowledge response carried out at High Mountain Arid Agriculture Research Institute, SKUAST (K), Leh-Ladakh. Total 100 farmers from AgroMet registered 3 villages of Leh region were randomly selected using multistage sampling technique. Socio-economic characteristics of respondents revealed that although before using advisory services, majority of the farming community were using traditional knowledge system to predict precipitation / temperature forecasting to interpret weather conditions. With the introduce of advisory services, it was recorded that old-aged farmers started using advisory services to the tune of 42 per cent. While more than 50 per cent of selected farmers (middle-aged non-registered under Agro-Met advisory services) utilized traditional prediction even under the changing climate. Education and land holding size were the most important factors influenced adoption culture of weather based Agro Advisory Services in the region. It was interesting that the old-aged people/farmers are the major source of information for traditional knowledge, have integrated and adopted the advisory services for weather prediction. As this advisory service scheme provided comprehensive information for agricultural operations. Majority (80%) selected farmers reported their satisfaction with present system of Agromet Advisory Bulletins, being issued biweekly. Whereas, the non-registered farmers of vulnerable villages in Ladakh region showed less knowledge about advisory service and its weather interpreted perdition.

The traditional agroforestry system in Trans-Himalayan region is unique with very old history and the land-based economy in cold and arid tract, commonly known as Ladakh essentially comprised crop-tree/shrubs-livestockman continuum. Families rely essentially on subsistence agriculture on the basis of vegetables and principal crops like naked barley, wheat and potato. Although subsistenceoriented production remains the economic mainstay, livelihood strategies have diversified in the light of growing geostrategic relevance and significant socio-economic changes. The present study was carried out 15 to find out the crop production systems and their constraints under the changing climate and energy budget of different cropsin Saboo village of Leh, having 623.7 ha land cover with 20.6% of cultivated land with artificially created soils in agroforestry systems and being maintained with repeated manure application. This practice compensate with loss of organic matter due to frequent erosion and nutrient uptake by plants as the region faces fast winds blowing at 40–60 km/h mainly in the afternoon and experiences the combined condition of both arctic and desert climate. Agroforestry as a sustainable alternative is suitable to traditional subsistence farming practices and provide flexible and affordable model which combines tree and crop species using a number of techniques. Wheat and barley although assumed very low energy input (29.2 and 25.4×105 kcal/ha/year, respectively) but from total energy point of view, staple crop production was found to be energy efficient. Small scale interventions by research institutes draw the attention of farming community to adopt for sustainable hike in productivity by saving-oriented energy.