Centres are being set up in the public-private partnership mode under which the companies participating will use the data commercially.
The Maharashtra agriculture department plans to set up tehsil-level weather monitoring centres to give farmers area-specific advisories that will help them determine the crop pattern and anticipate pest and disease outbreaks.
The centres are being set up in the public-private partnership mode under which the companies participating will use the data commercially.
Following in the footsteps of agriculture departments in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the state department will sometime in the next week invite expressions of interest for setting up 2,025 centres.
Each of the 355 tehsils in the state will have more than five centres to monitor weather and its implications based on six parameters — air temperature, relative humidity, global radiation, rainfall, soil temperature and wind velocity.
“Each station will cost around Rs6 lakh, taking the total project cost to nearly Rs122.60 crore. The Centre will provide funds under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. The rest of the expenditure will be borne by private players,” said Prabhakar Deshmukh, agriculture commissioner, adding that other modalities are to be finalised.
“Currently, advisories are issued based on the 36 weather stations that work in cooperation with the Indian Meteorology Department,” Deshmukh said.
“With the centres at the local level, farmers will be able to determine crop pattern based on information provided by the centres. In case of scanty or excessive rain the advisories will help them in deciding farming patterns.”
Another official from the department said the government will provide land for the centres, while other infrastructure has to be set up by companies to whom the contracts are awarded. The companies are expected to work with the agriculture universities in the state.
The official said that private players will be free to sell their data in the open market to recover their financial investment in the centre.
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