WB govt to install 180 meteorological observatories in agricultural farms

West Bengal government's agriculture department is installing as many as 180 meteorological observatories in the agricultural farms and research stations across the state to study the weather conditions beforehand and issue guidelines to the farmers as to what measures have to be taken according to weather conditions.

Weather system is one of the most important factors that determine the production of crops. Farmers often incur huge losses due to damage caused by shortage of rainfall as well as excessive rainfall, hailstorms and hence it would help immensely if the department provides them prior information.

Each meteorological observatory has a rain gauge station. Besides rain, they will record temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction of wind.


The weather data collected from these observatories will not only serve the research and extension wings of the agriculture department but also fulfil the needs of other departments, local administration, universities and research organisations as well.

The feedback given by these observatories will also be utilised for crop insurance, which the state government pays in full for most farmers.