Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Aug 7: In the background of suicides by farmers and in view of apprehensions and concerns of the farmer community across the country, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, MoS in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Space & Atomic Energy, disclosed here today that his Ministry has evolved a mechanism of putting out biweekly forecast of weather at district level for farmers on every Monday and Thursday respectively.
The forecast is available to the farmers through “SMS” on mobile phone, he said, because virtually every farmer even in remotest part of the country nowadays owns a mobile.
In reply to a starred question in Rajya Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between India and US for undertaking joint activities to use skills and information more effectively and added that it will further help to develop dynamic weather prediction models to the benefit of farmers by providing better understanding of Indian monsoon and its effect on agriculture production.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that a monsoon desk has been established in this regard and Indo-US scientists are currently sharing the knowledge to improve the Climate Forecast System (CFS).
It may be pertinent to mention that a “Crop Watch Weather Group” has been set up at the initiative of Earth Sciences Ministry headed by Dr Jitendra Singh which holds a weekly meeting every Friday.
In order to ensure accuracy, weather forecast is now being done on the basis of data collected from 2500 centers across the country round the clock, said Dr Jitendra Singh. Monsoon prediction is done on the basis of cloud images picked up by the satellite, rainfall measurement at fourteen different places in Kerala and wind measurements, he added.
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