43 million farmers have benefited from IMD forecasts: Dr. Harsh Vardhan

Mumbai: The met department’s weather services help almost 43 million farmers every day to make decisions regarding their crops, earth sciences minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said on Friday.

The government hopes to increase this coverage to 70 million by 2022, and 100 million by 2025, he added.

“Currently, 43 million farmers receive text messages that contain weather forecasts and advice on sowing, harvesting and storage of grains,” Vardhan said at the 146th foundation day of the India Meteorological Department.


The minister said India’s weather bureau is considered the fourth-best across the world, with only the US, England and Japan doing better in predictions.

“We have some of the world’s best services in terms of predicting cyclones, tsunamis and other common phenomena like lightning, thunderstorms and heatwaves,” he said.

Vardhan inaugurated two doppler weather radars at Kufri in Himachal Pradesh and Mukteshwar in Uttarakhand. This takes the country’s total radar count to 29. Another two are under construction, with one in Jammu likely to be functional by the year’s end, officials said.