By : Neha Dhyani
Updated : Jun 3, 2022, 12:22
The Indian summer monsoon works as a lifeline for the country as changes in any of its aspects largely impact water resources, agriculture, ecosystem, power generation, and economy.
If variations in the rainfall are known beforehand, it is easier to reduce the adverse effects associated with scarce or excess rainfall as prior information is available about floods and droughts. Predicting the rainfall accurately has always remained a challenge for the country.
The National Monsoon Mission [NMM] was introduced by the Ministry of Earth Sciences to develop a powerful monsoon rainfall forecast technique. It was launched in 2012 with an objective to come up with accurate forecasts for short, medium, and long ranges.
Recently, the NCAER (National Council of Applied Economic Research) has estimated the economic benefits of investing in this mission. According to this report, the investment of about Rs. 1000 crore in the NMM would provide benefits of Rs. 50,000 crore to 1 crore BPL families and over 520 lakh fishermen families in the nation.
As the monsoon rainfall contributes up to 80 per cent to the annual rainfall in the country and plays a critical role in food production, a programme like National Monsoon Mission [NMM] was necessary to improve forecasting systems for monsoon prediction.
Under this mission, the Ministry has designed state-of-the-art climate and weather forecast models which are operational at present. The models include systems for short to medium range (1 to 10 days), extended range (10 to 30 days), and seasonal (covering a whole season).
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The models developed under this mission have exhibited great performance and results in predicting weather events on various time scales in the past few years.
The NCAER has undertaken a study to examine the economic advantages of investments made in this mission and has found that for each rupee spent on the NMM, the nation gets benefits worth fifty rupees, which means 50 times more rewards on the investment in the next five years.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences has handed the responsibility of coordinating and executing the mission to the IITM (Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology). IITM collaborates with NCEP, MoES agencies, and other academic institutions under the mission.
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The National Monsoon Mission [NMM] not only focuses on developing seamless prediction systems for different time ranges but also aims to develop a working collaboration between the Indian and foreign institutes to come up with a system that predicts extreme conditions.
It also has a target of developing a system for applications that impact social elements. The total annual economic benefits from the National Monsoon Mission for farmers, agricultural families, and livestock owners have been calculated to be anywhere around Rs. 13,000 crore. The report outlines various impacts of the mission on the lives of fishermen, livestock owners, and farmers.
The National Monsoon Mission [NMM] was introduced by the Ministry of Earth Sciences in the year 2012.
NCAER stands for National Council of Applied Economic Research. It is the oldest and the largest economic policy research institute located in New Delhi.
The National Monsoon Mission [NMM] has an objective of improving monsoon forecasting over short, medium and seasonal ranges.
The National Monsoon Mission [NMM] gives 50 times the economic benefits of the investment made under it.
NMM stands for National Monsoon Mission
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