The IMD’s agromet services for farmers are proving to be extremely useful to fight the threat of increasingly frequent climate uncertainties, and helping farmers hold out against extreme temperatures that can cause large-scale crop loss.
Growing weather and climate uncertainties pose a major threat to India’s food security. The combination of long-term changes and the greater frequency of extreme weather events are likely to have an adverse impact on food production in the coming decades.
In this regard, India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has taken a major initiative through its Integrated Agro-Meteorological Advisory Service (IAAS) for the benefit of farmers. This agro-meteorological service, is an innovative step meant to contribute to weather information-based crop/livestock management strategies and operations dedicated to enhancing crop production by providing real time crop and location specific agromet services with a village level outreach.
Under IAAS, a mechanism was developed to integrate weather forecast, climatic and agro-meteorological information to prepare agro-advisories for enhancing farm productivity in India.
Agro-advisory services translate weather and climatic information into farm advisories using existing scientific knowledge. Weather advisories involve weather sensitive farm operations such as sowing, transplantation of crops, fertiliser application in keeping with weather conditions, intensity of rain, pest and disease control, inter-cultural operations, quantum and lining of irrigation canals in keeping with the meteorological threshold and timely harvest of crops.
IAAS provides special inputs to the farmer as an advisory bulletin. It has made a tremendous difference to agricultural production by taking advantage of benevolent weather and minimising its adverse impacts. IAAS was launched in collaboration with different organisations/institutes/stakeholders on April 1, 2007 for weather-wise farm management.
IMD is operating the IAAS in close collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other organisations. The weather information and related agromet advisories, prepared and disseminated at the district-level, helps farmers take day to day decisions such as, selection of crops and varieties for sowing, undertaking intercultural operation, application of irrigation and plant protection measures, undertaking mulching for conservation of soil moisture and harvesting of crops.
Information received on the possible weather and related agromet advisories help farmers minimise losses due to aberrant weather and save valuable inputs by postponement of operations. Agromet advisories issued to combat extreme weather events like cyclones also help farmers take immediate decisions on harvesting, draining out excess water and other rejuvenation measures.
District level agromet advisories are prepared by 130 agromet field units using medium-range weather forecasts (five days) for eight weather parameters, including:
- Maximum and minimum temperature,
- Total cloud cover,
- Surface relative humidity,
- Surface wind, and,
- Rainfall.
Bulletins are issued twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays, and disseminated to farmers in the regional languages. Composite bulletins at national and state levels are also prepared once and twice in a week, respectively. Fortnightly bulletin using extended range weather forecast are also made available for policy makers and planners.
Dissemination network
Dissemination of agromet advisories to farmers is being currently done through All India Radio (AIR) and the 18 regional Doordarshan Kendras of the country including the central production centre of Doordarshan, New Delhi through Krishi Darshan Programmes, private TV and radio channels, newspaper and internet, short message service (SMS) and interactive voice response technology (IVR).
Under Public-Private-Partnership mode, Reuter Market Light, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), NOKIA-HCL, Handygo, Mahindra Samriddhi, CAB International, National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) are disseminating agro-met advisories in SMS and IVR format to the farming community. In addition, a number of agro-met field units (AMFUs) have started sending agromet advisories through SMS in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC)/Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA)/Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK)/ National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Agromet advisories are also disseminated in both regional languages and English through ‘Kisan SMS’, a portal—farmer.gov.in/advs/login.aspx, launched by the agriculture ministry of the Indian government. So far, 11.50 million farmers have directly benefited by this service till now.
During April 2015, the Agricultural Meteorology Division, with the help of Agromet Field Units, disseminated advisories to around 5.15 million farmers in both English and regional languages to minimise crop losses due to severe thunderstorm and hailstorms in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
and Telangana.
In addition to this, IMD in collaboration with Reliance Foundation Information Services (RFIS) is disseminating agromet advisories to the farming community in seven States—Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, in a pilot mode. The agromet advisories have covered 1.8 million farmers so far.
Sangli grape growers- a case study
In 2012, the grape growers in Sangli district, Maharashtra, saved their crops from a severe cold wave in the month of January-February due to timely agromet advisory services. The advisories issued informed farmers about the expected dip in temperatures well in advance, while advising them how to maintain the temperature on their farms to save their harvest. For many grape growers in Sangli, the production of grapes would not have been possible if the services were not provided. When the temperature drops below a certain limit, the grapes are attacked by downy mildew. By the time farmers realise that the crop is attacked, it is too late. But, with the availability of agromet advisory services, saving crops from changing weather conditions is now an easy possibility.
Endnote
During times of climate change, agromet services can play a significant role in helping farmers tide over the vagaries of weather, and prepare well in advance to protect their harvests. Agromet services disseminated by the IMD/MoES through the radio, television, and hand held devices are a boon to agriculture, and the surest path to food security.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.