Buoyed by the forecast by the Indian Meteorological Department that the country may get “above normal rainfall” in the year 2916, Prof MS Swaminathan, eminent agriculture scientist, has called for deploying a Good Weather Code to make use of the favourable climatic condition.
The octogenarian Prof Swaminathan , still active in farm research and developing policies to help the country’ farmers, said on Tuesday that though the IMD has forecast a normal South West Monsoon for the year, severe drought situation is persisiting in States like Maharashtra where drinking water has become a luxury in cities like latur.
“Since the prediction for the forthcoming monsoon is good, we should initiate immediate action to prepare a Good Weather Code which will help us to optimise the benefits of good rainfall. The Good Weather Code involves action on mobilising the necessary good quality seed resources and the needed soil nutrients. Pulses and millets which require less water and which are nutritious can be the crops of choice both from the point of view of nutritional needs and climate resilience,” the professor said in a release on Tuesday.
He pointed out that the Good Weather Code could be prepared at the Panchayat level and popularised through climate risk managers. The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai, an agricultural think-tank, had in the past trained hundreds of climate risk managers drawn from the villages in the country. “Maximising the benefits of good monsoon and minimising the adverse impact of unfavourable weather should be our twin strategy for sustainable agriculture. The preparation of good weather codes with farmer’s participation should be completed in April so that it can be implemented from May onwards,” said Prof Swaminathan.