IIT Roorkee launches KISAN App to help farmers with weather forecasts, advisory

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has launched the KISAN mobile App for providing agromet advisory services to enable farmers to access weather forecasts and advisory bulletin in both English and Hindi. Farmers will also be able to send feedback on bulletins which can help in improving the service according to requirements.

IIT Roorkee conducted an awareness program as part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ programme under the Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa (GKMS) project. The programme was attended by farmers from different districts such as Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal. During the programme, the importance and benefits of the agromet advisory services were explained to the farmers by the Agro-Meteorological Field Unit (AMFU) Roorkee and India Meteorological Department (IMD), said a statement from IIT Roorkee.

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The KISAN app was developed by Khushboo Mirza, senior scientist at the Regional Remote Sensing Centre (RRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), New Delhi under the guidance of. CS Jha, chief general manager at RRSC, NRSC, ISRO, Hyderabad. According to Mirza, the KISAN App will be updated to suit the requirements of farmers so that farmers of their respective regions can solve agriculture-related issues.

A video that explains the GKMS project, has also been launched by AMFU Roorkee in both Hindi and English language on YouTube. A booklet titled “Agrometeorological Advisory Services for cereal crops, horticultural crops and livestock” has also been published during the programme.

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“IIT Roorkee is actively involved in working with farmers for the adoption of better agricultural practices by using the benefits of modern technology. This is a small step towards helping farmers use the latest technologies for reducing the risk component of agriculture,” said A K Chaturvedi, director of IIT Roorkee.