With the assistance of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has started a weather service for farmers in rural areas in Haryana’s Karnal. The service is provided on social media, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, radio and conventional print and visual media.
In the weather service, farmers are provided inputs about farming, based on weather conditions at the block level. The service is provided twice a week — on Tuesday and Friday.
Farmer Kamal Kumar Kamboj, a native of Nabipur village in Haryana’s Karnal district, is 43 years old. He is all smiles after receiving a clarification on a weather update on his mobile phone. He has been informed that it would rain for the next couple of days, but it would not damage his wheat crop.
Karnal’s National Dairy Research Institute has an Agriculture Research Centre that operates many WhatsApp groups that pass on inputs on agriculture, animal husbandry and weather updates.
“Due to this service, my expenditure comes down. I don’t get stressed out. Some days ago, after a weather report, I called up to enquire about the sudden change in weather. I was worried about my wheat crop. They told me to relax,” Kamboj told Gaon Connection.
Just in Karnal district, 2,000 farmers from eight blocks are connected to at least 28 such WhatsApp groups. “We inform farmers about the weather conditions in their immediate vicinity. We update them about the weather for the next five days. We have an advisory committee of experts from diverse subjects in agriculture,” Yogesh Gujjar, rural weather expert from the local Agriculture Science Centre, told Gaon Connection.
What drives these centres is very simple — the need to help farmers avoid losses due to weather conditions.
