The ministry of earth sciences will provide weather related information to farmers at the block level now. Currently, the information is available only till the district level. “The agro-meteorological prediction has to go to a smaller scale so it will be done at the block level instead of the district level,” Shailesh Nayak, secretary, ministry of earth sciences said at ‘world meteorological day’ celebrations in New Delhi.

The agro-meteorological prediction provides weather-related information like maximum, minimum temperature, rainfall, humidity etc details to farmers specifically so that they can plan accordingly. “We are constantly trying to provide information to farmers so they are prepared to face challenges,” Nayak said on Wednesday. He added that the predictions will start next year on an experimental basis.

With the conference titled, ‘climate for you’, the secretary said that though we have been familiar about how weather affects us but (we are) not sure about how changing climate is likely to affect us. “Climate is going to affect us significantly. Change we are making to climate is going to be a complex issue. The ministry is trying to understand the likely impact of change in climate,” he added.

Nayak added that the ministry is trying to provide information on water availability round the year. “As of now, we are providing information on availability of water only during floods,” he said.  but would like to provide this information round the year.