Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Agromet advisories help farmers in day-to-day farming operations

200 District Agromet Units (DAMUs) to augment block-level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme
August 10, 2021

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh informed that India Meteorological Department (IMD) has undertaken the installation of Agro-Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) to provide exact weather forecasts to the people, especially the farmers. He further said that the installation was done at district agromet units (DAMUs) located in the krishi vigyan kendras (KVKs) under Indian Council Of Agricultural Research (ICAR) network. The Minister said, Agro-AWS is being installed at 200 DAMUs to augment block level Agromet Advisory Services (AAS) under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) scheme.

Weather-based operational AAS viz. GKMS scheme, rendered by IMD jointly with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state agricultural universities, is a step towards weather-based crop and livestock management strategies and operations for the benefit of a farming community in the country. Under the scheme, medium range weather forecast at district and block level is generated, and based on the forecast, Agromet Advisories are prepared and communicated by the Agromet Field Units (AMFUs) co-located with state agricultural universities, and DAMUs at KVKs to the farmers on every Tuesdays and Fridays.

These agromet advisories help farmers to take a decision on day-to-day agricultural operations, which can further optimize the application of input resources at farm-level during deficient rainfall situations and extreme weather events to reduce monetary loss and maximize crop yield.

IMD also monitors rainfall situations & weather aberrations and issues alerts & warnings to the farmers from time to time under the GKMS scheme. SMS-based alerts and a warning for extreme weather events along with suitable remedial measures are issued to take timely operations by the farmers. Such alerts and warnings are also shared with State Department of Agriculture for the effective management of calamity.

Agromet Advisories are communicated to the farmers through multichannel dissemination a system like print and electronic media, doordarshan, radio, internet etc. including SMS. A mobile App viz., ‘Meghdoot’ has also been launched by Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, to help the farmers to get the weather information including alerts and related agromet advisories specific to their districts.