Lok Sabha Question No. 4078 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-08-10
Subject: Weather Forecasting System
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: C. MAHENDRAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 4078

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2016

## WEATHER FORECASTING SYSTEM

## 4078.  SHRI C. MAHENDRAN:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  weather  forecasting  system  is  functioning  properly  and reliable  information  is  being  passed  on  to  farmers  regarding  the climate change well in advance;
- (b)
- if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the farmers are satisfied in this regard;
- (d)
- if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the Government is conducting any researches in this line and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

(SHRI Y. S. CHOWDARY)

- (a) Yes Madam. India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the project Gramin  Krishi  Mausam  Sewa  (GKMS)  provides  the  crop  specific advisories to the farmers through different print/visual/Radio/ IT based media  including  short  message  service  (SMS)  and  Interactive  Voice Response Service (IVRS) facilitating for appropriate field level actions.
- (b) Crop specific advisories under 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. At  present,  the  GKMS  products  are  disseminated  through  SMS  and IVRS to 19.1 million farmers in the country.

- (c) Yes Madam.
- (d-e)   As  per  the  recent  National  Council  of  Applied  Economic  Research (NCAER) report, farming community of the country is using the GKMS service products of IMD for critical farm operations Viz. i) Management of sowing (Delayed onset of rains); ii) Changing crop variety (Delay in rainfall);  iii)  Spraying  Pesticides  for  disease  control  (occurrence  of rainfall); iv) Managing Irrigation (Heavy rainfall Forecast).

According to a survey, the agriculture specific forecasts of IMD have been found reliable by more than 93 percent of Indian formers. 95% of the  farmers  say  that  forecasts  of  IMD  have  improved  during  last  2-4 years. Further: Most of farmers felt that there had been an improvement  in  the  timeliness  of  the  weather  forecasts.  Among various components of weather elements, rainfall component has the highest  priority.  Concurrently,  with  the  implementation  of  District Level AgroMeteorological Advisory services, India has seen improved agriculture performance in the rain fed farming (Covers 60% of arable land). Incremental profit due to GKMS is assessed at 25% of the net income.

Potential  Annual  Economic  profit  by  using  GKMS  by  24%  of  the community  cultivating  4-principle  crops  (wheat;  paddy;  sugarcane; cotton) in 2010 was assessed at Rs. 38,463 Crores (when 2.0 million farmers  were  subscribed  to  SMS  service),  the  annual  profit  rose  to Rs.42,000 Crores in 2015 (11.5 million farmers have been subscribed to  SMS  service),  Top11-  Principal  Crops  was  assessed  as  56,310 Crores and top 28- Principal Crops was assessed as Rs. 67,000 Crores in 2015. The study suggests that GKMS has the potential of generating net economic benefit up to Rs.3.3 lakh crores on the 4-principal crops alone  when  Agro-Meteorological  advisory  is  fully  utilized  by  90.3 million dependent households.

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