Weather-Based Agro-Advisory Services in India

Twice a week, over 100 field units across India draft a weather forecast for farmers, not the general public. It reaches them through a WhatsApp message, sent by their own village Panchayat.

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Indian Economy · IndEco0130

Weather-Based Agro-Advisory Services

Taking the weather forecast down to the level of a single village

6 km

BharatFS resolution, cluster-of-Panchayat level

130

Agromet Field Units, 127 agro-climatic zones

55

Host Institutes running GKMS (ICAR, SAUs, IITs)

2x/week

District agromet advisories, Tue & Fri

7 days

Impact-based forecast & risk warning validity

3

AI global models: Pangu Weather, FourCastNet, GraphCast

MAUSAM App

MEGHDOOT App

DAMINI App

UMANG App

Two Systems, One Delivery Chain

High-performance computing and AI models generate the forecast. Panchayats, Krishi Sakhis, and WhatsApp carry it the last mile, to a farmer who may never open a weather app.

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Must Know

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, runs India’s weather-based agro-advisory system for farmers.
• IMD implements Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS), with 55 Host Institutes. These include ICAR institutes, State Agricultural Universities, and IITs.
• Under GKMS, 130 Agrometeorological Field Units (AMFUs) cover 127 agro-climatic zones. They issue district-specific agromet advisories twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday.
• The Bharat Forecasting System (BharatFS) generates forecasts at 6 km resolution, down to the cluster-of-Panchayat level.
• IMD also issues district-level, impact-based forecasts and risk-based warnings, valid up to 7 days, twice daily through its Regional and Meteorological Centres.

Good to Know

• IMD, with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, delivers Panchayat-level forecasts. These reach farmers through e-GramSwaraj, the Meri Panchayat App, e-Manchitra, and Mausamgram.
• Three AI-based global models now guide severe-weather forecasting: Pangu Weather, FourCastNet, and GraphCast. IMD scientists have also built their own AI/ML tools in-house, including a Nowcasting tool and downscaled urban forecasting.
• IMD runs four dedicated apps for the public: MAUSAM (forecasts and warnings), MEGHDOOT (agro-meteorological services), DAMINI (lightning warnings), and UMANG (general forecasting and warnings).
• For last-mile delivery, IMD’s advisories reach farmers through Panchayat Members’ phones via WhatsApp, and through the Krishi Sakhis and Pashu Sakhis village-level networks.
• IMD periodically surveys farmers and other users, to check how useful its agro-advisory and nowcast services actually are. These survey reports are made public.

Current Affairs

• 5 August 2026: The Ministry of Earth Sciences detailed India’s weather-based agro-advisory system. This came in a written Lok Sabha reply, by Minister of State Dr. Jitendra Singh. (Source: PIB)
• The reply confirmed India’s weather-observation network now spans manual observatories, Automatic Weather Stations, Automated Rain Gauges, and Agro-AWS units. It also includes Doppler Weather Radars, upper-air observatories, and weather satellites. (Source: PIB)
• This system runs on high-performance computing (HPC). That supports high-resolution Numerical Weather Prediction models under Mission Mausam, the Ministry’s broader climate-modelling framework. (Source: PIB)
• GKMS advisories now cover all agriculturally important districts nationwide, including Uttar Pradesh, cited specifically in this reply. (Source: PIB)

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which IMD scheme delivers district-specific agro-meteorological advisories to farmers twice a week?

Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS)

Bharat Forecasting System (BharatFS)

Panchayat Mausam Seva Portal

Mission Mausam

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Great to Know

• Agro-advisory services split cleanly into two layers. One is a compute-heavy forecasting layer: HPC, AI models, satellites. The other is a low-tech delivery layer: Panchayat phones, WhatsApp, village-level workers. Getting either layer wrong breaks the whole chain, however good the other one is.
• Twice-weekly, district-specific advisories are a deliberate design choice. A farmer doesn’t need a raw weather forecast; they need it translated into what to actually do this week, on this crop, in this district.
• Routing last-mile delivery through Krishi Sakhis and Panchayat networks, rather than a public app alone, reflects a real access gap. Many farmers who benefit most from accurate forecasts are the least likely to check a weather app on their own.