Telangana: Civil Supplies Corporation to make extensive use of weather forecast tools

Civil Supplies Commissioner D S Chouhan said the corporation would be switching over to the use of climate monitoring and weather forecasting tools more intensively.

Hyderabad: Keeping farmers updated on weather conditions on an hourly basis as they move stocks to paddy purchase centres and agriculture marketyards is the need of the hour and has been taken up as a prime task by the State Civil Supplies Corporation.

Civil Supplies Commissioner D S Chouhan said the corporation would be switching over to the use of climate monitoring and weather forecasting tools more intensively. This is the first exercise of its kind being implemented on such a large scale thus going to the rescue of the Rabi farmers who were badly hit by the untimely rains in the State almost every year.

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Not only farmers, but even traders and even the official machinery engaged in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations were required to stay informed of the changes in weather conditions from time to time. Farmers were facing many practical challenges even with regard to storage issues. Paddy stocks moved to purchase centres and marketyards were exposed to heavy rains resulting in losses in several districts during the last few weeks.

The Corporation, with the coordination of the all the district collectors had launched the programme to provide the farmers with complete information on changes in weather conditions and rain forecast by making use of the tools such as Farmweather that provides complete information based on the IBM data platforms.

This measure would help the farmers plan up in advance and avoid selling their produce to traders in fear of sudden downpour and untimely rain. It would help the official mechanism also to address the moisture related issues. Properly informed farmers would be able to cover up their stocks fully with tarpaulins to avoid exposure to the rains, he stressed.