Chief Secretary AP Padhi on Monday reviewed the progress of the State Drought Monitoring Cell (SDMC) set up in the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) office here on Monday.
He directed to set up a Farmers’ Advisory Cell in the Agriculture Department. The cell would issue agricultural advises on the basis of reading of the weather and soil moister conditions as are availed from Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARG).
It was decided to set up around 6,500 such AWS and ARGs at gram panchayat and OPTCl power stations through OSDMA and departments like Water Resource, Agriculture, Central Relief Commissioner and the IMD. These stations would have GIS coordinates.
Under the new system, the SDMC would monitor the data received from these automatic stations.
Other parameters like rain-fall deviation, dry spell situation, vegetation indices, and crop situation, soil moister and hydrological indices will be integrated and analysed scientifically on regular basis for advance assessment of any draught like situation.
In the meanwhile, an MOU was signed between the Odisha Government and the Karnataka Natural Disaster Monitoring Center for mutual exchange of knowledge, technical knowhow and subject expertise for more effective monitoring of draught units. An Expert Committee has also been constituted in SDMC to provide technical advice and recommendations.