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According to reports, IITians, MBA’s and foreign returned individuals have quit their job and taken up “Smart Farming”. With their minds put together, they are trying to influence the policy makers improve the livelihood of farmers by reducing the input cost and increasing the annual productivity. Farmers have been demanding higher price for their productivity from their respective deaf governments. The highly qualified people have taken up the mission to teach the farmers to increase their productivity which may fill in for low price on their produce.

A 50 year old Sudhanshu Kumar has installed sprinklers in his field to deal with the hot winds that might damage the crops. The farmer hailing from Samastipur in Bihar keeps a watch on various weather websites and prefers to control the micro-climate on his fields.

 

Sudhanshu has also revealed that he not only relies on latest technology but has evolved in his own way for getting timely weather forecast and dealing with the changing weather.

While speaking at a workshop on climate change for farmers hailing from Africa and South Asia, he said, “When it rains in Delhi, especially in April/May, it takes four days to rain at my place.

“When it rains in Patna, it take four hours for it to reach Samastipur and when it rains in Samastipur, it takes 40 minutes for the rain to reach my village”

Organisations like USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and IMD (India Meteorology Department) are in process of developing a network of farmers’ association that would help them to connect with each other and provide better climatic services. The organisations have also planned to raise $4 million to $5 million for the same cause.

As reports suggest, 95% of farmers from Nayanagar Village in Samastipur, Bihar decided against planting paddy last year as the IMD had forecast a bad monsoon. However, the 5% farmers who sowed paddy got an excellent produce as the monsoon was good.

“Seasonal forecasts are just a news for me. I want a forecast that can help me decide if I can do sowing/harvesting/spraying tomorrow,” said Sudhanshu.

The deputy director of general meteorology N Chattopadhyay said, “Next 10 years will be challenging for agriculture due to changing climate and instances of drought, flood and high temperatures. Delivery of timely climate information in usable form will be crucial”