Bengaluru: With more than 50 lakh calls from farmers in the past three years alone, the Varuna Mitra helpline is bracing for a fresh surge amid erratic rain and drought-year anxieties. The helpline, which provides medium-term forecasts for farmers based on predictions from Isro’s Space Applications Centre, receives 4,000 to 5,000 calls daily. In June, the call centre expects this to cross 15,000 calls a day. Launched in 2011, the helpline saw a record number of calls in 2023 — the year the state faced a drought-like situation with deficit rainfall, said MS Divakara, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC). This year, while conditions were neutral through April and May, an El Nino may emerge this month, said Divakara. “For Karnataka, history suggests this would mean drought and deficit rainfall. A clearer picture will emerge once IMD gives its opinion after May 15,” he said. The centre, which operates from KSNDMC in Bengaluru, has about 18 youngsters who answer a call a minute. Once a call is placed, the caller’s name and location are recorded so that the non-toll-free call can be kept as brief as possible. “The calls are so regular and frequent that farmers recognise the call centre personnel, and vice versa, by name,” an official said. Divakara said farmers, known for their intuition on weather patterns, sometimes call to confirm their own predictions. “They say it is cloudy and has been windy and ask if it would drizzle or pour in the next 24 hours,” he said. The number is linked to the World Bank-funded Rejuvenating Watershed for Agricultural Resilience Through Innovative Development (REWARD) project for 21 districts, with services extended to all 31 districts in the state. “While rain and wind speed predictions help farmers decide whether to irrigate or apply fertiliser, REWARD personnel guide them in choosing crops based on weather forecasts for the sowing cycle,” said Abhishek, senior customer service representative. “This is based on inputs from scientists from agricultural universities. Farmers also call us about pest issues and we help them identify the right solution or connect them with district, taluk or hobli representatives from the agriculture or horticulture department.” A 2020 Climate Change Scenario report by the centre pointed to NIK’s 88 lakh hectares being drought-vulnerable, the highest acreage compared to other regions in the state.
