Sunday, 20 February 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee organised a regional farmers’ awareness programme under Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) project on Saturday. Farmers from Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri districts participated in the programme wherein the stakeholders were sensitised about the Agromet advisory services jointly provided by the AMFU Roorkee and India Meteorological Department (IMD). A mobile application Kisan has been launched to enable farmers to easily and timely access these services on their mobile phone. Additional director general of IMD KK Singh apprised that the block-level weather forecast and weather based Agromet advisory bulletins are being provided to the farmers of all six blocks of Haridwar district by AMFU Roorkee every Tuesday and Friday. Farmers can now easily access these bulletins on their mobile phones through Kisan app. He said that the special feature of the application is that the weather forecast and advisory bulletin will display only for the block selected by the farmer. Singh added that the farmers can share their feedback about these bulletins which would be helpful to improve the quality of bulletin as per farmers’ requirement. The app is bilingual and users can select either Hindi or English.
Senior scientist of Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC), Khushboo Mirza has developed the app under the guidance of RRSC chief general manager (NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad) CS Jha. Mirza told that the app will be updated from time to time as per the user’s requirement, so that the purpose of the farmers of the region can be solved.
IIT Roorkee director professor AK Chaturvedi said, “IIT Roorkee is actively involved in working with farmers for the adoption of better agricultural practices by using the benefits of modern technology. This is a small step towards helping farmers use the latest technologies for reducing the risk component of agriculture.”
Jha said, “Most of the farmers these days are having smart mobile phones, hence the mobile app is a better option for the dissemination of agrometeorological advisory services. In this sense Kisan mobile app is able to meet the meteorological needs of the farmers.”
Director of Mahalanobis National Center for Crop Forecasting (MNCFC), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, VM Chowdary informed that crop yield forecast are also being issued at different stages of crop besides weather forecast which is helpful for various government agencies to take policy decisions. Chowdary discussed in detail about the extensive use of remote sensing technology in agriculture sector.
