NCML bets on dark skies for bright prospects, enters weather forecasting

Company to provide additional data like leaf wetness, sub soil moisture, humidity etc to farmers

With weather becoming erratic day by day, forecasting it is also becoming complex. However, some see opportunity in it. National Collateral Management Services Ltd (NCML), a company floated by the public sector institutions, is one of them and is now entering weather forecasting on a commercial basis.

NCML is at present active in warehousing and related activities and it provides consulting to the government and insurance companies on crop insurance by supplying them with rain fall data. However, it is readying with much bigger plan to forecast weather, which is useful mostly for farmers.

The government’s weather forecasting arm, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), does provide weather forecasts, but NCML is planning to go in to finer details with slightly longer term forecasts and has developed wider infrastructure to cater to specific needs of farmers.

Sanjay Kaul, managing director and chief executive of NCML, said: “We are readying with commercial launch of weather forecasting. We would be focusing on local community-based weather services only and would not be getting into state, country level forecasts where IMD already has developed lot of expertise. Hence, our services would complement what IMD is doing.”  

The company is planning media through which they can easily reach farmers. The plan includes weather-based forecasts and agriculture advise, which could be for four-five weeks. IMD offers generic advice for agriculture and they give forecasts for a season or for two-three  days.

NCML already has set up over 2,000 weather stations capturing nearly 60 per cent market share in private sector weather stations market, which has total 3,500 such stations. Skymet and weatherisk are other players.

“The difference in the IMD forecasts and NMCL is that IMD is mostly measuring rain fall and temperature, while “apart from measuring and rain and temperature, we also give data on leaf wetness, sub soil moisture, humidity, wind speed, etc,” said Kaul. IMD has 500 weather stations in 32 metallurgical divisions in which the country has been divided and around 1,200-1,500 rain gauges.  

For marketing of the forecasts, the company is talking to various agencies, including telecom service providers and government agencies. The difference between the IMD and NCML’s forecasts is in details and wider the network of weather stations. After selling these weather forecasts products-data, it plans to provide continuous updates.

NCML at present provides weather and rain fall data to insurance companies and the government for assessing insurance cover for crop loss. Crop insurance is provided under two types of schemes--National Agriculture Insurance Scheme and Weather-based crop insurance scheme. While providing the weather data, NCML certifies its data and takes responsibility for it as insurance claims are settled based on the data provided by it. It is also in talks with the central government to implement only weather-based insurance scheme for crop insurance as it is working well and it will standardise insurance claim process.