In news:
The report of National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), an independent, economic policy research and think tank, was released by the Union Minister of Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
More information:
- The NCAER report refers to economic benefits as direct monetary gains to crop farmers, livestock rearers, and fishermen in the country.
- According to the report, India’s investment of nearly 1,000 Crores in the National Monsoon Mission and High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities would provide benefits worth rupees 50 thousand Crores to nearly 1.07 Crore below poverty line (BPL) agricultural households and 53 Lakh BPL fisher-folk households in the country.
- NCAER study was based on a face-to-face survey of 6,098 respondents including crop farmers, marine fishermen, and livestock owners.
- Along with this, responses from 2 lakh farmers were also collected through interactive voice response system (IVRS) to validate the findings of the face-to-face survey.
- Data for both pre- and post-monsoon mission periods was incorporated.
- The augmentation of the National Monsoon Mission and HPC facilities has helped the country in achieving a paradigm shift in weather and climate modeling for operational weather forecasts.
- India is divided into 15 major agro-climatic zones, of which 10 zones that experience all monsoon events ranging from drought to floods have been covered by the NCAER study.
- A large majority of farmers affirmed to be positively impacted by weather advisories provided by IMD.
- They confirmed having made changes in critical agricultural practices such as crop variety or breed, fertilizer or pesticide application schedule, irrigation or harvest time, arranging for storage, etc. to reduce losses and increase income.
- A majority of livestock owners confirmed to be making decisions about livestock management practices such as vaccinations, modification of sheds and shelters, and fodder practices based on weather parameters.
- The report provides an estimated income gain of nearly 13 thousand crore rupees per year for agricultural and livestock farmers and an incremental economic benefit of nearly 48 thousand crore rupees over the next five years.
- It was found that a majority of fishermen reported using ocean state forecasts before venturing into sea and for avoiding empty trips, which improved their livelihood by reducing their operational cost.
- The NCAER report also assessed economic benefits to the agriculture-related womenfolk of the country.
- NCAER estimated benefits of nearly 13 thousand Crore rupees to women alone, which is 26 percent of the total benefit provided by the national monsoon mission and high-performance computing facilities.
Source: PIB
