India Meteorological Department to provide forecast, agri advisory to farmers at block level

PUNE: The agricultural meteorology division of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which that provides weather forecast and agriculture advisories to farmers at the district level, now plans to reach out to farmers at the block level. The IMD is also in talks with the Space Application Centre at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), to use satellite data for agro-met services.
The expansion of services to the block level is expected to start by January-end and cover all blocks under the 12th five-year Plan.The aim is to minimise the impact of adverse weather on crops and boost agricultural production.
N Chattopadhyay, deputy director general of agricultural meteorology at IMD's Pune division said the weather forecast and agriculture advisory for the farming community was a flagship programme of the department and the Union ministry of earth sciences. Of the 610 districts that have been identified, 587 districts are covered at present, including almost all the districts in Maharashtra.
"At present, the forecast and advisory are provided at the district level. Experts from 130 centres provide the advisory in 12 regional languages. In the next phase, we will take it to 6,000 to 8,000 blocks in the country. Information related to crops, horticulture and livestock at the block level will be more useful to villagers,'' he said.
Additionally, the IMD plans to cover all the blocks in the next five years by collaborating with Krishi Vigyan Kendras that are functioning in the districts. The IMD will provide infrastructure and funding to these Krishi Vigyan Kendras and will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with them, he added.
Chattopadhyay said that satellite data from Kalpana-1 and Insat-3A will be used to get information. "We are in discussion with Isro for the collaboration. Immediate information can be acquired using satellite data. Remote sensing data can be useful for crop acreage and yield estimation, crop condition assessment of major crops and assessment of drought conditions. Other countries are using remote sensing data to prepare agro-met advisory; we can do the same. In 2013, the Union government and Isro will launch INSAT-3D, which will help to generate information.
"We are in touch with many organisations to improve forecast and relevant advisory. There is an increase in population but decrease in agricultural land in use. Moreover, climate variability should not hit the crops. Hence, the increase of crop productivity with agro-met services is useful,'' he added.
* IMD has involved organisations like Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ministry of agriculture, state agricultural universities and other agencies for integrated agro-met advisory services.
* So far, IMD has installed around 1, 300 automated weather stations in the country. More such installation will be taken up in future.
* A pilot project to disseminate agriculture advisory services via SMS to 50,000 farmers in 10 districts of Maharashtra has been started.