The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to integrate IMD’s agro-meteorological data products into Data in Climate Resilient Agriculture (DiCRA), an open-source digital platform supported by NABARD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The partnership aims to make weather and climate information freely accessible and more actionable for farmers, financial institutions, policymakers and researchers across India.
The MoU was signed by Sanjeev D. Rohilla, Chief General Manager, Department of Climate Action and Sustainability, NABARD, and Bikram Singh, Scientist-G and Head, Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai, IMD, in the presence of Dr Shaji Krishnan V., Chairman, NABARD; Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD; and senior officials from both organisations.
Under the agreement, IMD will provide a range of agro-meteorological data products through DiCRA, including district- and block-level weather forecasts, agrometeorological advisories, in-situ observations and weather alerts.
The information will be integrated into a dedicated Weather Portal within DiCRA’s existing suite of thematic portals. It will be combined with the platform’s geospatial datasets on soil moisture, vegetation health, crop conditions and climate vulnerability.
The integration is intended to provide users with decision-ready information at the district and block levels, helping them better understand weather-related risks and take timely action.
NABARD to Channel Weather Information Through Open APIs
NABARD will use DiCRA’s open APIs and data infrastructure to distribute IMD’s agrometeorological products in actionable formats.
Through DiCRA’s web portal, mobile interface and API integrations, district-level advisories, seasonal risk alerts and weather-linked vulnerability assessments will be made available to farmers, as well as researchers, policymakers, credit officers and field staff. The integration will also support NABARD’s existing Weather Portal within DiCRA, which is currently under development.
Focus on Climate-Resilient Agriculture and Finance
Dr Shaji Krishnan V., Chairman, NABARD, said, “Climate risk cannot be treated as a standalone issue; it has to be integrated into our development and financing decisions. Information is available — what is needed is its conversion into intelligence and then into timely action. By bringing together IMD’s scientific capabilities and NABARD’s rural institutional reach, this partnership can help forewarn both the farmer and the bank, strengthening rural livelihoods and climate-resilient finance.”
Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, said India’s weather forecasting capabilities have improved significantly, with accuracy increasing by around 40–50% over the past decade and forecasts now reaching the panchayat level. He said the next challenge is to ensure that weather information reaches every farmer in a timely and usable form. According to Mohapatra, the partnership between IMD and NABARD can help bridge this last-mile gap through outreach, technology and capacity building.
DiCRA as a Digital Public Good
DiCRA is a collaborative Digital Public Good that provides open access to geospatial datasets and analytics relevant to climate-resilient agriculture. Developed through UNDP’s Accelerator Lab India and a wider collaborative ecosystem, the platform was recognised as a Digital Public Good in 2022. Under the NABARD-UNDP partnership to scale data-driven innovations in agriculture, NABARD hosts and maintains the DiCRA platform with technical support from UNDP.