Considering the Weather based Advisories are important for the Indian farming community. The farming community is in great need to have access to weather information to plan and manage their crops and their livelihoods. Considering the growing acceptance of farmers for the internet and mobile based services, ICAR earlier made an attempt to provide valuable agromet information to the users through a common platform - "Crop Weather Outlook`.This website provides Agrometeorological information highlights generated under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology (AICRPAM) and its Cooperating and Collaborating Centres along with ‘Value Added Agro-advisory Reports.
Now a step further the Indian Council of agricultural Research (ICAR) and India Meteorological Department (IMD jointly planned to provide Agro Met Advisory Services(AAS) in local language across the country for the farming community in different Agro-climatic zones to improve productivity and reduce risk.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU), in this regard was signed between ICAR and IMD today. Dr. A.K.Singh, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) and Dr KK Singh, Head, Agro Met Services, IMD singed the MoU on behalf of ICAR and IMD respectively.
ICAR & IMD have jointly planned to augment the AAS network to sub-district (block level) level by setting up of District Agro-Met Units (DAMUs) in 530 districts in the premises of KVKs to provide agromet services to farmers.
Initially 200 KVKs including the 110 aspirational districts have been identified for setting up of DAMUs. The initial fund of Rs. 2.4 cr. (@ Rs.1.2 lakh per unit) has been sanctioned for establishing the required facilities to start the advisory services.
