NOWCAST Insurance Portal and Weather Alert Service: Overview and Benefits

NOWCAST Insurance Portal and Weather Alert Service: Overview and Benefits

Question: Insurance Portal and Weather alert service NOWCAST has recently been launched for the welfare of farmers. Discuss the benefits of this scheme and provide an overview of it.

Overview

• This mission mode project in agricultural technology has been formed under the National e-Governance Plan to achieve rapid development of agriculture in India through the employment of ICT

• This portal will insure timely access to agriculture related information for farmers

• 12 cluster of services in which inputs will be provided include:

- Soil health
- Good agricultural practices
- Weather
- Livestock
- Fisheries
- Marketing
- Training

• They will be rolled out in states following customisation

Benefits

• In the wake of adverse weather conditions, farmers will be provided timely inputs regarding insurance under three schemes:

- National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS),
- Modified National Insurance Scheme (MNAIS)
- Weather based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS)

• Information on weather and agro meteorological advisories were generated and disseminated by the IMD through this portal

• New web based portal provides information in non repetitive, precise and expeditious manner

• It helps farmers tackling agro ecological variations

• 17 Doppler Radars have been developed by IMD for up to date information through this portal

• Apart from this, the Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme is also applied in some parts of the nation and the portal creates awareness about such beneficial schemes

Facts and Stats

• Only 20% of the gross cropped area in India is insured

• Low coverage is due to ignorance about insurance products, and high rates of non NAU insurance products

• An insurance calculator was launched in 2012; finally a dedicated web portal has been launched in 2015

• Online interface will also be developed shortly