Evaluation of National Monsoon Mission

• 04 Nov 2020

Why in News

Recently, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has evaluated the economic benefits of the National Monsoon Mission (NMM).

• Established in 1956, NCAER is India’s oldest and largest independent, non-profit, economic policy research institute, based in New Delhi.

Key Points

• The study spanned across 173 rain-fed districts in 16 states which appropriately represented agro-climatic zones, rain-fed areas, coverage of major crops, and incidence of extreme weather events in the country. It was conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• The study refers to economic benefits as direct monetary gains to crop farmers, livestock rearers, and fishermen in the country.
  
  • India’s investment of nearly Rs. 1,000 crore in the NMM and High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities would provide benefits worth Rs. 50,000 crore to nearly 1.07 crore Below Poverty Line (BPL) agricultural households and 53 lakh BPL fisherfolk households in the country.
• The total annual economic benefits to agricultural households, farmers and livestock owners taken together, has been calculated at Rs. 13,331 crore and the incremental benefits over the next five years are estimated to be about Rs. 48,056 crore.
  
  • The benefits are from accurate weather forecasting by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and other agencies working under the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
    
    • Agro-meteorological services for farmers is one of the most prominent weather services of IMD.
    • Every day Ocean State Forecast (OSF) and warnings to fishermen going out to the sea by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) helped in elimination of less or not so productive trips to the ocean.
    • Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) advisories resulted in successful trips generating additional catches.
• Data Analysis of the Benefits:
  
  • Based on weather advisories, 98% farmers made modifications such as changing variety/breed of the crop, arranging storage of harvest, early/delayed harvesting, changed crop, early/delayed sowing, changed the schedule of ploughing/land preparation, changed pesticide application schedule, changed fertiliser application schedule and changed scheduled irrigation.
  • 94% of farmers were able to avoid losses and increase income because of services provided through NMM.
  • 82% of fishermen surveyed, reported using OSF advisories before they venture into the sea every time.
  • A total of approximately Rs 1.92 crore additional income was generated from 1,079 successful fishing expeditions made using PFZ advisories.

National Monsoon Mission

• It was launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2012.
• Aim: To improve the forecasting skills by setting up a state-of-the-art dynamic prediction system for monsoon rainfall different time scales.
• NMM builds a working partnership between the academic and research and development (R&D) organisations, both national and international.
• Its augmentation with the HPC facilities has helped the country in achieving a paradigm shift in weather and climate modelling for operational weather forecasts.

Source: IE