93% of Indian farmers find Met forecasts reliable

While the common man still takes India Meteorological Department (IMD)'s forecasts with a pinch of salt, 93 per cent of the farmers surveyed by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) found the weather agency's agriculture-specific service reliable. And, 95 per cent think IMD has improved in the past four years.

NCAER first conducted the survey in 2010 to analyse the impact and economic benefits of Grameen Krishi Mausam Sewa and Marine Fishery Advisory of IMD. Thereafter, the survey was done in 2012 and in 2015.

The two services are meant for farmers and fisherman.

According to the latest survey, although only 11.5 million farmers out of the total 120 million farmer families receive the crop and weather advisories through SMS, if expanded, it has huge potential to improve their incomes.
 

The survey showed the annual economic profit of an average farmer cultivating wheat, paddy, sugarcane, cotton rose from Rs 38,463 crore in 2010 to Rs 42,000 crore in 2015, thanks to IMD's Agromet services.

Similarly, fishermen using the marine weather service reported 3-4 times increase. Besides, marine weather forecasting led to savings of Rs 36,200 crore worth of diesel a year. Around one million people are active fishermen in India.

The Agromet services are currently being disseminated through 130 field units covering 633 districts; IMD plans to scale it up to include 100 more field units.

According to officials, the expansion of field units would enable IMD to provide block-level weather forecast against the current practice of district-level weather forecast for farmers. There are around 7,000 blocks in the country.