Lok Sabha Question No. 80 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-16
Subject: Accurate Weather Forecast
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: SAKSHI SWAMI MAHARAJ, ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 80

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2016

## ACCURATE WEATHER FORECAST

80. DR. SWAMI SAKSHIJI MAHARAJ: SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Indian  Meteorological  Department  (IMD)  providing  forecast and  consultancy  services  block  level  in  the  country  including  it  Uttar Pradesh;
- (b)
- if so, the details for the last three years thereof;
- (c) the details of the efforts made to forecast real time weather;
- (d) whether  any  technological  assistance  has  been  sought  from  foreign countries  and/or  studies  undertaken  in  this  regard  and  if  so,  the  details thereof; and
- (e) the efforts made by the Government to introduce such technologies in the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a-b) Madam,  at  present,  India  Meteorological  Department  (IMD)  is  providing forecast  for  formulating  agro-meteorological  advisory  services  at  the district level. However research efforts are initiated to explore possibility of generating sub district (block level) scale agro-meteorological forecast with  acceptable  level  of  skill  in  a  pilot  mode.  The  weather  forecast  and Agro-meteorological  advisories  at  district  level  for  last  3  years  were provided  to  the  farmer  through  the  network  of  130  Agro-Meteorological Field  Units  located  in  state  agricultural  universities,  Indian  Council  of Agricultural  Research  (ICAR)  centres  and  Indian  Institute  of  Technology (IIT) on every Tuesday and Friday, twice a week. At present, 19.51 million farmers are directly subscribing and have benefitted by AgroMeteorological  Advisories  in  SMS  and  IVRS  free  of  cost.  The  Status  of Dissemination of Agro-advisories for October 2016 is given in Annexure-I
- (c) At  present  district  level  weather  forecast  is  generated  for  the  next  five days by India Meteorological Department (IMD) and based on that Agromet Advisories  are  prepared  and  communicated  to  the  farming  community  in the country.

Crop specific advisories under Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva (GKMS) of IMD through  Agriculture  Field  Monitoring  Unit  (AFMU)  are  rendered  twice  a week in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), institutions  of  Indian  Council  of  Agricultural  Research  (ICAR),  IITs  etc. Such advisories are formulated based on district level weather forecast for next 5-days in respect of:

-  Rainfall
-  maximum temperature, minimum temperature
-  wind speed, wind direction
-  relative humidity and cloud/Cover
-  weekly cumulative rainfall forecast
-  Weather forecast based agro meteorological advisories are disseminated in vernacular language through Kisan portal launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and also under public private partnership.
- (d-e) Under  Ministry  of  Earth  Sciences-National  Oceanic  and  Atmospheric Administration, USA (MoES-NOAA) collaboration, the improved framework of  forecast  models  were  adapted  and  after  due  performance  evaluation and  associated  fine  tuning  of  the  modeling  frameworks,  global  forecast system was implemented in 2014. Accordingly,  model  has  demonstrated improved forecast skills.

Operational  implementation  of  improved  suite  of  prediction  models  has enhanced  the  weather  forecasting  capability  through  assimilation  of  all available  global  satellite  radiance  data  for  the  production  of  forecast products at 22km grid globally and 9km/3km grid over India/regional/mega city domains.

This became possible after commissioning of High Performance Computing (HPC)  System  across  the  institutions  of  MoES  for  expanding  the  various forecast  models  implementation  for  weather  climate  and  ocean  state forecast. Currently 1.2 petaflops scale HPC is functional so as to support development / testing of next generation suit of models for various weather sensitive applications.

Annexure-I

| Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   | Status of Dissemination of Agrometeorological Advisories for October 2016   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| State                                                                       | IFFCO                                                                       | NOKIA                                                                       | Reuter                                                                      | Handygo                                                                     | Reliance Foundation                                                         | Kisan Sanchar                                                               | Mahindra & Mahindra                                                         | State Total                                                                 |
| Uttar Pradesh                                                               | 516755                                                                      | 105600                                                                      | 41148                                                                       | 4409                                                                        |                                                                             | 5963                                                                        |                                                                             | 673875                                                                      |
| Uttarakhand                                                                 |                                                                             |                                                                             | 150                                                                         |                                                                             |                                                                             | 52                                                                          |                                                                             | 202                                                                         |
| Odisha                                                                      | 406024                                                                      | 84                                                                          | 1                                                                           |                                                                             | 180436                                                                      |                                                                             |                                                                             | 586545                                                                      |
| Madhya Pradesh                                                              | 52027                                                                       | 9243                                                                        | 42048                                                                       | 3411                                                                        | 137198                                                                      | 3415                                                                        |                                                                             | 247342                                                                      |
| Chhattisgarh                                                                |                                                                             |                                                                             | 568                                                                         |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 568                                                                         |
| Tamil Nadu                                                                  | 26677                                                                       | 5171                                                                        | 3                                                                           |                                                                             | 260247                                                                      | 109                                                                         |                                                                             | 292207                                                                      |
| Bihar                                                                       | 324629                                                                      | 10264                                                                       | 10                                                                          | 20953                                                                       |                                                                             | 3755                                                                        |                                                                             | 359611                                                                      |
| Jharkhand                                                                   |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 800                                                                         |                                                                             | 800                                                                         |
| Gujarat                                                                     | 50359                                                                       | 10990                                                                       | 8202                                                                        |                                                                             | 107472                                                                      |                                                                             | 52579                                                                       | 229602                                                                      |
| West Bengal                                                                 | 121372                                                                      | 997                                                                         | 1847                                                                        |                                                                             | 6757                                                                        |                                                                             |                                                                             | 130973                                                                      |
| Maharashtra                                                                 | 35188                                                                       | 10799                                                                       | 39465                                                                       | 32124                                                                       | 1699696                                                                     | 1816                                                                        | 66531                                                                       | 1885619                                                                     |
| Haryana                                                                     | 12737                                                                       | 3880                                                                        | 47                                                                          | 2920                                                                        |                                                                             | 2031                                                                        |                                                                             | 21615                                                                       |
| Punjab                                                                      | 22861                                                                       | 4529                                                                        | 20526                                                                       |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 47916                                                                       |
| Rajasthan                                                                   | 86837                                                                       | 146                                                                         | 41197                                                                       |                                                                             | 866                                                                         | 2127                                                                        |                                                                             | 131173                                                                      |
| Karnataka                                                                   | 104467                                                                      | 4578                                                                        | 2129                                                                        |                                                                             | 1370                                                                        |                                                                             |                                                                             | 112544                                                                      |
| Andhra Pradesh                                                              | 68880                                                                       | 6027                                                                        | 1670                                                                        |                                                                             | 267756                                                                      | 106                                                                         |                                                                             | 344439                                                                      |
| Telangana                                                                   |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |
| Kerala                                                                      |                                                                             | 581                                                                         |                                                                             |                                                                             | 82711                                                                       |                                                                             |                                                                             | 83292                                                                       |
| Himachal Pradesh                                                            | 10309                                                                       | 890 1                                                                       |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 11200                                                                       |
| Jammu Kashmir                                                               |                                                                             | 314                                                                         |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 314                                                                         |
| Assam                                                                       |                                                                             | 1375                                                                        |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 1375                                                                        |
| Meghalaya                                                                   |                                                                             | 2                                                                           |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 2                                                                           |                                                                             |
| Delhi                                                                       |                                                                             | 1                                                                           |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             |                                                                             | 1                                                                           |                                                                             |
| Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | Total                                                                       | 5161215                                                                     |
| SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | SMS sent by AMFUs through NIC, way 2 sms etc                                | 129961                                                                      |
| SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | SMS sent through Kisan Portal                                               | 14219490                                                                    |
| Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | Grand Total                                                                 | 19510666                                                                    |