Moving a step closer to helping the farming community, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh launched Insurance Portal and Weather alert service NOWCAST Thursday in Delhi in the presence of the Ministers of State for Agriculture, Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and Shri Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya.
Urgent need for an Insurance Portal enabling speedy processing farmers’ queries on Insurance and also their application for Agricultural Insurance cover has been felt in the wake of recent adverse weather conditions in some parts of the country and losses suffered by farmers due to their non-awareness about insuring their crops.
As per the prevailing provisions Farmers can insure their crops under 3 schemes viz. National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS), Modified National Insurance Scheme (MNAIS) and Weather based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS). Besides this, Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme (CPIS) also is applicable in some parts of the country.
Information on weather and agro meteorological advisories are generated and disseminated by India Meteorological Department (IMD) under the Ministry of Earth Sciences through their website and also by their 130 Agro Met Field Units (AMFUs) operating across the country.
But under NOWCAST initiative, the extreme weather data originated from IMD is being moved to mKisan portal using a web service. From mKisan Portal warnings regarding extreme weather conditions are automatically and instantaneously transmitted by SMS to farmers located in affected district/blocks.
This technological break-through is a collaborative effort between mKisan Portal developed by DAC, weather technologies adopted by IMD and GIS Portal of NIC. Advance Warnings issued so far are also displayed on the Web.