Lok Sabha Question No. 1788 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-27
Subject: Weather Forecast in Regional Languages
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: P. Ravindhranath

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOKSABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1788 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 27TH JUL, ,2022

## WEATHER FORECAST IN REGIONAL LANGukGEJ

## 1788. SHRI P. RAVINDRANATH:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- whether the Government has planned to provide medium-range weather forecasts in regional languages through short message service (SMS) to farmers on requdst for ree; if so, the details thereof; 1 (a) (b)
- whether the Government has also planned to set up agro-automs tic wether stations at the district level across the country for generating information on rains temperature, humidity and wind speed; and (c)
- if so, the details of such stations in the state of Tamil Nadu and tie act" ities initiated in this regard? (d)

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARlGE) MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOd AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a)-(b) Yes Sir. Weather-based Agromet Advisories are being provided to the farmers in regional ,. . languages on every Tuesday and Friday under operational A~rometborOlOgicalAdvisory Services (AAS) viz., GraminKrishiMausamSewa (GKMS) scheme of India Meteorological I . Department (IMD).

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Under GKMS scheme, medium range weather forecast at district and bl ck level is generated and based on the forecast, 130 Agromet Field Units (AMFUs), locate at State Agricultural Universities, institutes of Indian Council of Agricultural Research i(ICA~) and Indian Institute of Technology (lIT) etc., prepare Agromet Advisories on every 1fuesd y and Friday for the districts under their jurisdiction and for the blocks of the district f their location and communicate to the farmers to take decision on day-to-day agriCUltral 0Ierations.

After successful implementation of district level AAS, District A~romt11 Units (DAMUs) are being established at KrishiVigyanKendras (KVKs) in collaboration with ICAR to implement block level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS). Till date, 1~9 Dif.trict Agromet Units (DAMUs) have been established at KVKs across the country un1er IC4\R network and these DAMUs prepare district and block level Agromet Advisories bas9d on district and block level weather forecasts for their respective districts and communicaJe to Fhe farmers on every Tuesday and Friday. Block level weather forecast and Agromet Advisoties aid the farmers in taking decision on day-to-day agricultural operations at micro-level, In addition to that, Impact based forecast (IBFs) for agriculture are also being prepared by It\MF~S and DAMUs based onthe severe weather warnings for different districts of various' State and UTs across the country issued by National Weather Forecasting Centre (NWF9)' Ne Delhi and Regional Meteorological Centres (RMCs) and Meteorological Centres (MCs) of! D.

Agromet Advisories are disseminated to the farmers through ultich nnel dissemination system like print and electronic media, Door Darshan, radio, interne etc. . eluding SMS using mobile phones through Kisan Portal and also through private comt,anies der Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The number of farmers receiving SMS vari IS depending on the population of farming community and area under cultivation. egulF dissemination of warning through Kisan Portal launched by Ministry of Agriculture d Fmr.-ers' Welfare is not in practice since June 2021. However, SMS to the farmers thr lugh rivate companies is continued as earlier.

With the advancement of ICT, Farmers access the weather info ation including alerts and related agromet advisories specific to their districts through the m I bile pp viz., 'Meghdoot' launched by Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. Th~se weather details are also accessible by farmers through another App 'KisanSuvidha', aunc ed by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

Social media is also used for quicker dissemination of forecast an I advirories to the farmers. At present farmers of 1,19,534 villages in 3,596 Blocks have be~n co~ered through 16,132 WhatsApp groups. State Agriculture Department officials of Distrilct and Block level are also included in these WhatsApp groups. Continuous efforts are being mIl ade t4 increase the number of farmers and villages covered to disseminate Agromet advisories sing hatsApp.

In addition to above, advisories are also being circulated through a numb r of Facebook pages created by AMFUs and DAMUs. Initiative on collaboration with ~tate I overnment has been taken up for integration of weather forecast and Agromet advis9ries ~'th state government mobile apps and websites. The integration has been complete~ for Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu d Uttarakhand states and about 6 million farmers of above-mentioned states are getting bejefitted from weather forecast and agromet advisories.

- Yes Sir. Under GKMS scheme, one Agro-automatic Weather St tion (f,gro-A WS) each has been installed at each of the newly established DAMUs to generate the i formation on various weather parameters including rainfall, temperature, humidity and/ wind speed. In addition to other weather sensors, the Agro-AWSs are equipped with soil mfisture and soil temperature sensors up to one-meter depth, as these parameters are very imporant tpr decision making in farm level risk management. 200 Agro-A WSs have already been installe across the country. (c)
- In Tamil Nadu, 10 Agro-AWSs have been installed at KVK prjmises where DAMUs have been established. The details of Agro-AWS installed in Tamil Nadu are iven in the following table. (d)

## List of districts with newly installed Agro-AWS in Tamil Nadu u ider I KMS Scheme

|   S.No. | District       | KVKN~me                    |
|---------|----------------|----------------------------|
|       1 | Cuddalore      | KVK Vridhachalam           |
|       2 | Pudukkottai    | KVK Pudukkottai            |
|       3 | Ramanathpuram  | KVKRamnat puram            |
|       4 | Virudhunagar   | KVKAruppuk ottai I         |
|       5 | Vellore        | KVK Virinjipuram           |
|       6 | Thirruvallur   | KVK Tirur                  |
|       7 | Kancheepuram   | I KVK Kattupakkam          |
|       8 | Dharmapuri     | KVK Papparapatty           |
|       9 | Salem          | KrishiVigyan Kendr , Salem |
|      10 | Tiruchirapalli | KVK Sirugamani             |

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