Overview

• Odisha has secured funding and formally advanced the WINDS project into its deployment phase, with automatic weather stations and rain gauges scheduled for installation statewide.
• The Agriculture & Farmers Empowerment Department and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority will jointly oversee the rollout, using state contributions from the PMFBY budget managed by the Cooperation Department.
• The MoU was signed in Bhubaneswar on July 3–4 by Director of Agriculture and Food Production Subham Saxena and Skymet CEO Jogesh Patil.
• A network of AWS at block levels and ARG at gram panchayat levels will provide real-time weather data to enhance crop planning, risk evaluation and insurance claim processing under PMFBY.
• Deputy Chief Minister Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo said the upgraded monitoring system will empower farmers to adopt multiple cropping and improve resilience against erratic monsoons and cyclones.