Lok Sabha Question No. 2786 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-03
Subject: Agricultural Weather Forecasting Services
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOKSABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2786 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 3 RD AUGUST, 202

## AGRICULTURAL WEATHER FORECASTING SERVlbES

## 2786. SHRIMATI POONAMBEN MAADAM:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government is taking steps to improve agricultural weather forecasting services for the farmers;
- (b) if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the details of modernization and upgradation of technology for providing accurate weather forecast at grass root level?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARG ) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a)-(b) Yes Sir. India Meteorological Department (IMD) runs an operation 1 Agr meteorological Advisory Services (AAS) viz., Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) schem for the benefit of farming community in the country. Under the scheme, medium rangb weather forecasts at district and block level is generated and based on these forecasts, 130[Agro~et Field Units (AMFUs), located at State Agricultural Universities, institutes Of Indi~. n Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Indian Institute of Technology (lIT etc., prepare Agrometeorological Advisories on every Tuesday and Friday for th~ distri ts under their jurisdiction and for the blocks of the district of their location and commfnicatt to the farmers to take decision on day-to-day agricultural operations. AAS rendered by JMD is a step towards weather-based crop and livestock management strategies and oberatians dedicated to enhancing crop production and food security besides reducing crop damage nd loss due to unusual weather.

After successful implementation of district level AAS, District Agrom9. Unit (DAMUs) are being established at Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in collaboration . ith ICAR to implement block level AAS). Till date, 199 District Agromet Units fDA s) have been established at KVKs across the country under ICAR network and tHese DAMUs prepare district and block level Agrometeorological Advisories based on di"rict $d block level weather forecasts for their respective districts and communicate to ~re fa ers on every Tuesday and Friday. In addition to that, Impact based forecast (IBFs) f9r agri ulture are also being prepared by AMFUs and DAMUs based on the severe weather warnings for different districts of various States and UTs across the country.

IMD also monitors rainfall situation & weather aberrations and issues lerts warnings to the farmers time to time under GKMS scheme. SMS-based alerts and arnings for extreme weather events along with suitable remedial measures are issued to take imelyloperations by the farmers. Such alerts and warnings are also shared with State Depa ment f Agriculture for the effective management of calamity.

Agrometeorological Advisories are disseminated to the farmers t rough multichannel including SMS using mobile phones through Kisan Portal and so th ough private companies under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The number of fa 1 ers receiving SMS varies depending on the population of farming community and are undenr ultivation.

Farmers access the weather information including alerts and relate agro eteorological advisories specific to their districts through the mobile App viz., 'Me hdoo I' launched by Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. These weather details are fllSOaccessible by farmers through another App 'Kisan Suvidha', launched by Minis ry of griculture & Farmers Welfare.

Social media is also used for quicker dissemination of forecast and advi ories ~othe farmers. At present farmers of 1,19,554 villages in 3,598 Blocks have been co ered trough 16,140 WhatsApp groups. State Agriculture Department officials of District an1 Bloc~ level are also included in these WhatsApp groups. Continuous efforts are being 9lade tP, increase the number of farmers and villages covered to disseminate Agrometeorological arvisories using WhatsApp. I

In addition to above, advisories are also being circulated through a numb~r of Facebook pages created by AMFUs and DAMUs. Initiative on collaboration wifh Sta~e Government has been taken up for integration of weather forecast and Agrometeorological advisories with state government mobile apps and websites. The integration has been Icomplfted for Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand states and about 6 million farmers of above-mentiondd stats are getting benefitted from weather forecast and agrometeorological advisories.

IMD is also taking continuous efforts to popularize the services amon the farming community by organising Farmers' Awareness Programmes (FAPs) m collrboration with AMFUs and DAMUs in various parts of the country. IMD along ,ith thf experts from AMFUs and DAMUs also participate in KisanMelas, Farmers' Day etc, to create awareness about the services, so that more farmers get benefitted.

- To upgrade the forecasting capabilities and enhancement in Weather & C imate services throughout the country including Agromet Advisory Services various a~tivitie are underway in India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the umbrella C9ntral I ector Scheme ACROSS. There are 4 sub-schemes of IMD under ACROSS namelyi Atmospheric Observation Network (AON), Upgradation of Forecast System (UFS)~ Wealher & Climate Services (WCS) and Commissioning of Polarimetric Doppler Wea her Radars (PDWR) aimed at expansion of observational network and improvement in Weat er & Climate services. (c)

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