The Hindu Business Line : Earth Sciences Ministry working on ‘Agro-Met’ model

Coimbatore, Aug. 25 With a view to improving the weather forecasting models to benefit the farming sector, the Ministry of Earth Sciences is working on agriculture meteorology to impart enhanced accuracy in forecasting climate changes.

The Ministry has broadly set about a two-year time schedule to usher in ‘Agro-Met’ model to provide region/district/village-wise accessibility of reliable weather forecasts.

In order to extend the ‘Agro-Met’ advisory services, the Ministry has also proposed to network with the agricultural universities for extending technical inputs to the farmers to tackle the weather changes and its implications on their crops, according to Dr P.S. Goel, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Climate Forecasting

To extend the ‘Agro-met’ advisory services, the Ministry would also involve the Department of Information and Technology, which would provide the linkage to village-level farmers’ kiosks. While the region-wise networking could be achieved by September/October this year, all districts could be linked by May 2008.

In the case of village-wise linkage for ‘Agro-Met’ advisory, about 1,00,000 villages could be covered. The linkage with all the universities will be achieved within a year, he added. Speaking at a national conference on ‘Impacts of climate change with particular reference to agriculture’ organised by the Tamilnadu agricultural university (TNAU) in association with the Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi, Dr Goel also said that his Ministry has planned to create a ‘centre of excellence’ for undertaking studies on climate changes and improve the climate forecasting models.

Weather Data

It has also proposed to set up ‘weather channel’, possibly as a private-public initiative that is aimed at benefiting different stakeholders. Stating that the details on the ‘weather channel’ are still being worked out, he said the channel benefit could be availed by insurance companies too to know the weather data as a tool to extend the crop insurance effectively.

The secretary pointed out the adverse climate changes brought about by global warming and its bearings on agriculture. The response ‘mechanism’ needed to tackle this rests with the ability to have accurate, reliable forecasting of the weather changes and reaching the mitigating technology to the farmers affected.