During the pre-industrial times, when agriculture was mainly done using human labor, animal draft and organic inputs, the input-output ratio was relatively stable. Predictable weather patterns and variations allowed for establishing a locally accepted sowing and harvesting time. These conditions ensured agriculture stability & significant levels of certainty in terms of productivity, supply and income. However, emerging climate and market uncertainties are challenging their conventional practices. With increasing unpredictability in the variation of local weather conditions and market prices, farmers are losing confidence in their decision making ability. Thus, it has become the need of the hour that timely climatological information along with the seasonal climate forecast is supplied to farmers. This is true for all farming communities since agriculture, across all agro ecological zones, heavily relies on weather patterns.

In the context of growing uncertainties, Climate Services (CS) are emerging as a powerful techno-social tool that could create disruptive innovations in adaptation to climate variability and climate change. Techno-social here means integrating scientific knowledge and societal needs to manage the socioeconomic consequences of changing conditions. Climate Services are not only trying to augment the decision making process of the farmers, but in the process are also elevating their confidence in the extension services. These services could allow the farming communities to adapt to the weather variability and mitigate potential losses in agricultural output. Climate Services involve the production, translation, transfer, and use of climate knowledge and information for climate-informed decision making and planning. Given this, agriculture extension services can play a significant role in transfer of knowledge and thereby assist farmers to cope up with the growing challenges.

Presently there exist several Climate Service Providers (CSPs) which use Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool to dispense a range of climate services. The services provided by CSPs include advisories on diverse areas like soil management, weather forecasts, weather based agro-advisory, crop management, plant protection, market rates, dairy and animal husbandry. Information of general use on health, employment, education, women empowerment, financial inclusion, awareness of climate change and Government schemes, information about the latest policies are also packaged in different formats to make them available to the farmers. The various delivery mechanisms of CSPs include SMS, push messages, voice messages and mobile apps, meetings and trainings, local knowledge centers, farmers clubs, and announcements over the microphone in villages. Most of the advisories are formulated based on the Crop Protocols developed by State Agriculture Universities (SAUs). The CSPs also formulate committees which comprise of the SAU representatives, representatives from the state agriculture department and from the CSPs. The information processing & release of the agro advisories are generally undertaken in consultation with the experts from the committee.
In the overall process of articulating the climate service from procuring the information to final product, there are 4 major stages. The flow chart below explains the same,

From the information flows to the end user product, the climate services seem to have adopted different business models for different scale of operations. Though the source of weather information is common in most of the cases, that is India Meteorological Department (IMD), the information flows, the interpretation of the information, its translation and transfer along with the final packaging of the climate services differs significantly within the CSPs.
The largest public actor is the Agro-meteorological Advisory Service (AAS) introduced by IMD. It has a subscription base of over 12 million in Maharashtra alone. AAS networks with the various SAUs around the country. For disseminating forecasts and for building forecast based agricultural advisories, AAS works with Agro-Meteorological Field Units (AMFUs) in 127 agro-climatic zones (now expanded to 130 units) in India. While IMD has the largest presence, being a public actor, it’s potential to expand through the strong network of agriculture extension like Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), continues to remain a pivotal aspect for their growth .
In other private CSPs like Reuters Market Light (RML), IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), Watershed Organization Trust (WOTR), most of the information is processed through an internal team of experts. They all have their unique propositions. WOTR has its Automated Weather Stations (AWS) installed in villages which generates confidence in the villagers on the accuracy of the weather information. Supplying timely & updated market information, through its mobile application, is one of the key strengths of RML. IKSL excels in its agro advisories and call center services.   

With growing penetration of the smart phone technology in the remote areas, the application driven or app-based advisories are seen to be capturing the space. But the end users are in a conundrum about choosing between their trusted traditional methods and modern scientific technology. However, the farmers in Maharashtra are seen dovetailing the traditional methods with the climate information and advisories to articulate a self-customized product to their benefit. These advisories being in local languages are well absorbed and internalized by the farmers.

Climate Services sector, in India, is in its early days and fast evolving.  It is due to undergo iterative learning cycles to make their end product more robust and meaningful to the end user. To have a faster learning curve CSPs must focus on having effective and efficient feedback systems to document experiences of the end users. To increase the usability of Climate Services, its products should be better coordinated and also timely delivered in the format customized to the user needs.  Thus, Climate Services by providing timely, tailored, decision- relevant information could develop farmers’ abilities to deal with current weather/climate variability and improve their resilience to future climate change. In principle the core objective of the CSPs & their services should be to enhance farmers’ decision making ability for them to be better prepared to manage uncertainties.  Therefore, the role of climate services could be pivotal in changing the landscape of modern agriculture in an era of increasing weather and market uncertainty.

For further information please contact:

aditi.phansalkar@teri.res.in
mihir.mathur@teri.res.in
neha.bharti@teri.res.in