Land shortage cripples Agriculture Ministry’s weather network rollout, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• The Weather Information Network and Data System (WINDS) project, aimed at installing weather sensors nationwide, is significantly delayed.
• Over 96% of the planned 50,500 Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) and Automatic Weather Stations (AWSs) are yet to be installed.
• The primary reasons for the delay are a shortage of suitable land and a "retrospective" insistence by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on ground-level sensor placement.
• The project, run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and executed by the Mahalanobis National Crop Forecast Centre (MNCFC), is crucial for calculating insurance payouts under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY).

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Detailed Insights:

• The WINDS network aims to provide hyper-local weather data to aid agricultural decision-making and insurance assessments.
• Private partners were tasked with installing 1,197 AWSs and 49,313 ARGs across various states.
• As of September 9, only 113 AWSs (9.4% of target) and 1,730 ARGs (4% of target) have been delivered.
• Site selection is the major bottleneck, with thousands of proposed sites being rejected in states like Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.
• Private companies claim that initial guidelines (September 2023 manual) allowed rooftop installations, but a December 2025 amendment retroactively limited these to 10-15%.
• IMD officials assert that ground-level placement is essential for data accuracy, aligning with World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) guidelines, as sensor height significantly impacts weather readings.
• The 2025 amendment requires states to provide justification for rooftop installations and sets specific caps for such placements.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Weather Information Network and Data System (WINDS): A program to establish a nationwide network of weather sensors for hyper-local data collection.
• Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY): A government-sponsored crop insurance scheme providing financial support to farmers in India.
• Automatic Rain Gauge (ARG): A device that automatically measures and records rainfall data.
• Automatic Weather Station (AWS): A station that automatically measures and records multiple weather parameters like rainfall, temperature, humidity, and wind.
• India Meteorological Department (IMD): The primary agency responsible for meteorological observations, weather forecasting, and seismology in India.