“Meghdoot” a weather messenger to assist farmers
As part of the technological advancement in agriculture, the Ministry of Earth Science and Agriculture has launched a mobile app called "Meghdoot" to deliver farming based agriculture advice to farmers on a district-wide basis in regional languages.It was developed by experts from the Indian Meteorological Department, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology and Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The service will initially be available in 150 districts across the country. It will be phased out to other parts of the country in the next one year.Forecast of the various weather parameters like temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed and direction for each days can be obtained in a very simple language by this mobile application. This will play a crucial role in assisting farmers in maintaining climate-based agriculture. “Meghdoot” updates agro advisory services on how to care for crops and livestock twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Farmers will also be provided with images and maps to get a clearer picture of what the app provides. It integrates with WhatsApp and Facebook to enable farmers to share information with one another. Meghdoot will be connected to YouTube in the future.
As a part of the inauguration of technological week “Agrotech 2020” in KVK Kollam, the official release of Meghdoot app to Kollam district had been done by Sri. M. P. Sajeev, Chairman of Standing Committee, Welfare Department, VettikkavalaGramaPanchayath. Dr. Bini Sam (Professor and Head, KVK Kollam), Ms. Anunayana. T. John (Subject Matter Specialist (Agrometeorology), Ms. Shahina. S (Agromet Observer) are the officials representing Kollam district in generation and dissemination of agro advisory services as well as guiding the farmers in assessing this application.
The central government is constantly trying to promote an innovative technology based agriculture among the farmers. As a part of this effort, “Meghdoot” had been launched which primarily aims to educate farmers on the best farming practices. Farmers no longer have to wander on television or radio for weather information. Instead, they can use these app to keep track of the weather in their area.
“Meghdoot” can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and also from the App Store.
