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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How inaccurate weather forecasts are adding to farmers' woes in Maharashtra -Subhojit Goswami

How inaccurate weather forecasts are adding to farmers' woes in Maharashtra -Subhojit Goswami

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published Published on Mar 8, 2018   modified Modified on Mar 8, 2018
-Down to Earth

Farmers rely on IMD forecasts, even though they are not always accurate, but sudden changes in advisories make it difficult for them to respond

On February 21, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast thunderstorms and hailstorms in northern Maharashtra and western Madhya Pradesh on February 23 and 24. Gusty winds, hailstorms and thunderstorms over ‘isolated places’ in Pune, Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nashik and Ahmednagar were predicted. It created panic among the grape farmers in Nashik as the crop is highly sensitive to rain.

In view of the hailstorm warning, the farmers advanced the harvest by two-three days to avoid crop loss.  There is lot riding on Nashik, which exports 100,000 metric tonnes of grapes that have defined specifications when it comes to sweetness and size. In a dramatic turn of events, the IMD withdrew the warning saying the trough over the Himalayan region has weakened. But by that time, the Nashik farmers had wasted both money and manpower by working round-the-clock to protect their crops and going for early harvesting. This is not the first time that incorrect hailstorm advisory by the IMD affected Maharashtra farmers.

On February 11, hailstorm had destroyed several villages in central Maharashtra and Vidarbha, destroying standing crops in Marathwada and Vidarbha worth Rs 313 crore across an area of over 300,000 hectares. While the weather forecast issued by the IMD on February 9 did mention that “thunderstorm accompanied with hailstorm very likely at isolated places” over Marathwada, the prediction was for February 12. It failed to make any such prediction for February 10 and 11.  However, the weather advisory issued by the Maharashtra government was more specific, flagging concern over possibility of hailstorms affecting farmlands in Gadchiroli, Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Nagpur, Wardha, Nanded and Latur apart from parts of Amravati and Yavatmal districts.

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Down to Earth, 5 March, 2018, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/how-inaccurate-weather-forecasts-adding-to-farmers-woes-in-maharashtra-59818


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