World Meteorological Day 2020: Significance of Weather Forecast in Agriculture, Best Weather Apps for Farmers & More!

Just like a good monsoon can extraordinarily nurture the crops, a long-prevalent cold wind also has the potential to destroy the crops. This is how bad weather can affect the agriculture. The science of meteorology can be quite a helpful tool for the farmers across the world. 

Today, on 23rd March 2020, World Meteorological Day is celebrated across the world to highlight the contribution of organizations like National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in ensuring the safety and well-being of society. Krishi Jagran takes a moment to appreciate the significance of meteorology and weather forecast in the field of agriculture and celebrates World Meteorological Day to educate our farmers about how they can use the science of meteorology in farming. 

Significance of Weather Forecast in Agriculture 

Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and physics that majorly focus on weather forecasting. The science of meteorology is of utmost importance in the field of agriculture as all the agricultural activities depends on the weather. The temperature and weather affects the farms in lot many ways and can affect the farming of different kinds of fruits, vegetables and pulses. With the modern technologies, the access to meteorological information has become a lot easier with weather forecasts being just one click or tap away. 

As farmers use the applied meteorology in their strategies of cultivating crops so that the farmers can know about the potential benefits of weather forecasts. Farmers can use meteorology to improve efficiency and ensure sustainability of their farm management. This way, they can ensure the protection of their crops as well as maintaining the health of their crops, livestock, and environment. This way, the crop yield can also be increased and the market value of their crops could increase, thereby farmers can have the maximum prices of their crops. 

In today’s technologically driven world where mobile phones and internet connectivity are easily accessible, farmers can acquire knowledge about weather systems through mobile applications. Let’s discover some of the best weather apps for farmers in India. 

Best Weather Apps for Farmers in India

The penetration of internet and mobile phones has gone quite deeper in the rural areas as well. And that is why farmers can learn how they can use technology at its best. Many agriculture scientists and big players in the agricultural field have come up with mobile applications to disseminate weather regarding information. Here are some of the best mobile apps for farmers they can use to be updated with weather updates: 

Kisan Suvidha 

Kisan Suvidha was launched by the PM Narendra Modi in the year 2016 with a vision to work towards empowering farmers and for the development of rural India. The app provides information on current weather and also predicts for the next five days. The app allows its users to use the app in different languages to make it more widely accessible. 

 IFFCO Kisaan 

Launched in 2015, this app is managed by IFFCO Kisan, a subsidiary of Indian Farmers’ Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd. The app works towards helping Indian farmers make some informed decisions as it provides customized information related to their needs. The customers can have an easy access to a variety of informative modules including agricultural advisory, weather, market prices, and agriculture information library in the form of text, imagery, audio and videos. 

RML Farmer – Krishi Mitr 

One of its kind agricultural app, RML Farmer – Krishi Mitr allows farmers to keep abreast of the latest commodity and mandi prices, weather forecast and advisory, precise usage of pesticides and fertilizers, farm and farmer related news. The users can choose from over 450 crop varieties, 1300 mandis, and 3500 weather locations across 50,000 villages and 17 states of India.