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Measures, predicts and limits climate risk to agriculture
Skymet Weather Services is India's largest weather monitoring and agri-risk solution company. “We offer actual data on weather forecast. It is available online on our website. We are able to track every rain, every drop of water in real time. Now we are also the largest verifiers of yield. We collect lot of yield data. We are working in 15 zones and trying to ascertain farmers about the farm yield at the individual farm levels. We have an advisory program through which we provide agriculture advisories for free,” says Mr. Jatin Singh, Founder, on the agriculture specific operations at Skymet. Company has a network of almost 5,000 automatic weather stations across the country. “We are working directly with over 200,000 farmers, insurance company, banks and state government.”
This year rainfall has already happened right. “So this monsoon is fine with small patches which we had anticipated in South India. Kerala and some parts of Karnataka did not do too well, but otherwise on the whole it is normal. First week of September was raining so I think there is enough moisture for the crop. Paddy and cotton crops are doing good. We just hope that we do not get seasonal rainfall,” he shares.
Speaking of fluctuating rain pattern Mr. Singh says, “On observing rainfall series these days it is noticed the average rain is about the same but the number of rainy days has reduced. So you get long dry spells and complicated rainfall. There is no solution for the same.”
When asked if rainfall fluctuations would continue he says,” It might be! There was one drought decade between the 1900 and 2000 and between 2000 and 2016 there had been five. I think you are going to have dry spells till 2030. The climate change predictions are that after 2030 we are going to start getting more wet spells.”
Winter is a much less predictable phenomenon than precipitation. “Winter temperature, can't say anything. Also there is local weather. Cities don’t have enough water bodies, all the green cover is gone, the wind is not showing through because of the building and traffic. Especially heat of concrete is quite low in urban areas so it absorbs and it releases heat fairly quickly,” he states.
According to Mr. Singh Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan shall be fine. “Delhi seems like become more durable than East India. Rainfall is going down in North East,” he explains. “Maharashtra was going through a tough phase because it was bad in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Now things will be better as 2016 is good. Maharashtra is surpassing for this here, but on an average in three years, two successes and one failure occurs.”
Company offers Skymet Weather App that provides weather details in multiple languages. It is a free download app. As per the figures there are about 200,000 downloads. “We see many people using it widely in Maharashtra. The internet connected states primarily are Andhra Pradesh, Karanataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab. So we have many active users in rural areas in these states,” he informs. Lot of queries are received online directly from the farmers. “We stay connected with our users through social media mainly twitter and facebook.”
In time to come Skymet is looking at providing infrastructure to all, “We have big projects from US where we shall be working directly with 200,000 farmers. We are providing them with agricultural advisories. Secondly we are getting involved with the insurance vigorously,” he reveals.
Climate is changing and humans are responsible for this change! The climate change pattern is something that can be adapted at the strategic level by the state governments. In agriculture it would be better to provide financial instruments like insurance and credit. Co-operative banks must make sure the credit goes to the people who actually need it. Therefore, identification of farmer is necessary. “We also need to get some kind of documentation of people who share the crops. All the subsidies available from government are given to landholders. But the crops are shared by some other individual/farmers/agricultural labors. Further presently in our country land leasing is banned but the process to certify land lease by government must begin,” he suggests.
“Moreover country is experiencing over population, farm size is going down and farm livelihood is extremely poor. Therefore I think the whole country will need to subsidize agriculture in a big way. The economics of food has to change. Country definitely needs corporate farming,” signs off Mr. Jatin Singh.
Mr. Jatin Singh has masters in International Communication from Boston University and bachelors in political science. He was working as journalist in Aaj Tak before establishing Skymet Weather Services in 2003.
Contact details:
Skymet Weather Services Private Limited
Plot No. 10& 11 GYS Heights, Ground Floor,
Sector 125, Noida,
Phone: +911204094524
Email: jatin.singh@skymetweather.com
Web: http://www.skymetweather.com/
3 Attachments
Skymet Weather Services is India's largest weather monitoring and agri-risk solution company. “We offer actual data on weather forecast. It is available online on our website. We are able to track every rain, every drop of water in real time. Now we are also the largest verifiers of yield. We collect lot of yield data. We are working in 15 zones and trying to ascertain farmers about the farm yield at the individual farm levels. We have an advisory program through which we provide agriculture advisories for free,” says Mr. Jatin Singh, Founder, on the agriculture specific operations at Skymet. Company has a network of almost 5,000 automatic weather stations across the country. “We are working directly with over 200,000 farmers, insurance company, banks and state government.”
This year rainfall has already happened right. “So this monsoon is fine with small patches which we had anticipated in South India. Kerala and some parts of Karnataka did not do too well, but otherwise on the whole it is normal. First week of September was raining so I think there is enough moisture for the crop. Paddy and cotton crops are doing good. We just hope that we do not get seasonal rainfall,” he shares.
Speaking of fluctuating rain pattern Mr. Singh says, “On observing rainfall series these days it is noticed the average rain is about the same but the number of rainy days has reduced. So you get long dry spells and complicated rainfall. There is no solution for the same.”
When asked if rainfall fluctuations would continue he says,” It might be! There was one drought decade between the 1900 and 2000 and between 2000 and 2016 there had been five. I think you are going to have dry spells till 2030. The climate change predictions are that after 2030 we are going to start getting more wet spells.”
Winter is a much less predictable phenomenon than precipitation. “Winter temperature, can't say anything. Also there is local weather. Cities don’t have enough water bodies, all the green cover is gone, the wind is not showing through because of the building and traffic. Especially heat of concrete is quite low in urban areas so it absorbs and it releases heat fairly quickly,” he states.
According to Mr. Singh Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan shall be fine. “Delhi seems like become more durable than East India. Rainfall is going down in North East,” he explains. “Maharashtra was going through a tough phase because it was bad in 2002, 2003, 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2015. Now things will be better as 2016 is good. Maharashtra is surpassing for this here, but on an average in three years, two successes and one failure occurs.”
Company offers Skymet Weather App that provides weather details in multiple languages. It is a free download app. As per the figures there are about 200,000 downloads. “We see many people using it widely in Maharashtra. The internet connected states primarily are Andhra Pradesh, Karanataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab. So we have many active users in rural areas in these states,” he informs. Lot of queries are received online directly from the farmers. “We stay connected with our users through social media mainly twitter and facebook.”
In time to come Skymet is looking at providing infrastructure to all, “We have big projects from US where we shall be working directly with 200,000 farmers. We are providing them with agricultural advisories. Secondly we are getting involved with the insurance vigorously,” he reveals.
Climate is changing and humans are responsible for this change! The climate change pattern is something that can be adapted at the strategic level by the state governments. In agriculture it would be better to provide financial instruments like insurance and credit. Co-operative banks must make sure the credit goes to the people who actually need it. Therefore, identification of farmer is necessary. “We also need to get some kind of documentation of people who share the crops. All the subsidies available from government are given to landholders. But the crops are shared by some other individual/farmers/agricultural labors. Further presently in our country land leasing is banned but the process to certify land lease by government must begin,” he suggests.
“Moreover country is experiencing over population, farm size is going down and farm livelihood is extremely poor. Therefore I think the whole country will need to subsidize agriculture in a big way. The economics of food has to change. Country definitely needs corporate farming,” signs off Mr. Jatin Singh.
Mr. Jatin Singh has masters in International Communication from Boston University and bachelors in political science. He was working as journalist in Aaj Tak before establishing Skymet Weather Services in 2003.
Contact details:
Skymet Weather Services Private Limited
Plot No. 10& 11 GYS Heights, Ground Floor,
Sector 125, Noida,
Phone: +911204094524
Email: jatin.singh@skymetweather.com
Web: http://www.skymetweather.com/
3 Attachments