Weather-based farm advisory system in Karnataka
Weather-based farm advisory system to reach taluks now
- The country’s flagship programme of the weather forecast-based agricultural advisory system is set to become more focussed by moving to the taluk level from the present district level for greater accuracy and efficiency.
- To begin with, the system will be implemented on a pilot basis in 100 taluks chosen from different States, of which five are from Karnataka
- The pilot project would commence in about six months from now
- While the weather forecast for taluk level is already available, the data related to its interpretation and farm advisory system is being put in place
- Based on the performance of the pilot scheme, the system will be extended to all the 6,650 taluks in the country
- The ultimate goal is to treat villages as primary units when there is adequate technical infrastructure.
Aout: The weather forecast-based advisory system
- The weather forecast-based advisory system was launched about three years ago on a low-key basis, with only 500 farmers opting for its services.
- In the system, the registered farmers will get two advisories a week in the form of SMSes on their mobile phones on the dos and don’ts on farming operations based on the weather forecast.
- While each SMS costs around 75 paise, the Centre bears the entire cost of the system.
- 1.5 crore farmers registering for the services.
- Under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa project (GKMS), India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Science in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities /Indian Council of Agricultural Research etc. is issuing crop and location specific weather based agro advisories for the benefit of farming community on every Tuesday and Friday and occurrence of extreme weather
- They have been successful in providing the crop specific advisories to the farmers at the district level through different media like print/visual/Radio/ IT based including short message service (SMS) and Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) for a wider dissemination.
Fact Box:Did you know?
For the benefit of fisherman community, a satellite-based application for the fishermen community of the country, called “Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) Advisories“, is being generated and provided on using the satellite data and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools since 1999 useful for location of fish grounds/aggregation .
In addition, the Ocean State Forecast (OSF) (wave height and direction, wind speed and direction, ocean currents, sea surface temperature, depth of mixed layer and thermo cline, sea level at major and minor ports, etc. is also being provided to fisherman.
