Weather and Crop Advisory Services 2026

Reviewed on 2026-06-20 by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak.

Quick answer. Weather and crop advisory in India is free. The India Meteorological Department issues a district advisory every Tuesday and Friday under its Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa. Get it on the Meghdoot app or as mKisan SMS, and it tells you when to sow, spray and irrigate over the next five days.

This guide follows one farmer's week, from the first sign-up to acting on a bulletin and what to do if the advice never arrives. Read it in order and you will know exactly where you stand on any given day.

You only do this step one time. Pick one of the two free official channels.

The Meghdoot app, launched by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, is the fastest. Download it from the Google Play Store or the App Store, open it, and sign in with your mobile number and your preferred language. Choose your state, district and crop. From that moment the app shows you a five-day forecast for your area covering rainfall, temperature, humidity and wind, plus the crop advisory written for your district.

If you do not use a smartphone, register for mKisan SMS instead. Call the Kisan Call Centre toll free on 1800-180-1551 and ask to be registered for agromet advisories in your language for your location. After that, the advice reaches you as a plain text message, no internet needed.

Many Krishi Vigyan Kendras also run district WhatsApp groups. Ask your nearest KVK to add your number so you get the same bulletin there too.

The advisory is built for real field decisions, not just weather curiosity. It guides you on sowing dates, pesticide and fertilizer application, irrigation scheduling and even animal vaccination timing. Before you plan your season, it pairs well with your Soil Health Card reading and your crop loan and interest subvention planning.

This is the heartbeat of the service. Twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday, your local unit prepares and pushes a fresh advisory. The advisory is prepared by 130 Agromet Field Units sitting at agricultural universities, ICAR institutes and IITs, which between them cover roughly 700 farming districts. Finer block-level coverage has historically run through District Agromet Units at Krishi Vigyan Kendras, but that block-level network has been in flux, so verify the current coverage for your block on imdagrimet.gov.in or mausam.imd.gov.in.

Each bulletin reads the next five days of weather and then tells you what to do with it. If heavy rain is coming on Thursday, the Tuesday advisory may tell you to hold off on spraying or to delay irrigation so you do not waste water and chemicals. If a dry, windy spell is forecast, it may advise an early irrigation.

On top of the twice-weekly cycle, the units issue impact based forecasts for agriculture whenever the National Weather Forecasting Centre or a regional centre flags severe weather, such as a heatwave, hailstorm or unseasonal heavy rain. These alerts can reach you on any day, not just Tuesday or Friday, so keep notifications switched on in the Meghdoot app.

An advisory is only useful if you act on it within its five-day window. Read the bulletin the moment it lands and match it to your week's plan.

A simple habit works best. On Tuesday and Friday, open the bulletin, note the rain and wind days, and decide your sowing, spraying and irrigation for the next few days around them. Spraying just before a downpour wastes your input and money; the advisory exists to stop exactly that. If the advice says hold, hold.

When you are ready to sell what you grow, plan the harvest window around the forecast and then check the today's mandi prices before you move your produce, so weather and price work together in your favour.

One government-commissioned study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research, published in 2020, surveyed 3,965 farmers across 121 districts in 11 states. It found that 98 percent of those farmers changed at least one farming practice based on the advisories. This is a study finding, not a guarantee of any particular income, but it is why the service is run nationally. Treat the advisory as informed guidance and combine it with your own field judgement.

Figure: step-by-step flow. If a step stalls, use the grievance or RTI route shown.

Sometimes the app shows no bulletin, the SMS dries up, or the advice is clearly wrong for your block. Do not just give up on the service.

First, in the Meghdoot app, confirm your state, district and crop are set correctly, because a wrong district setting is the most common reason for missing advice. Next, call the Kisan Call Centre on 1800-180-1551 and report that you are not receiving advisories; they can re-register you and route your complaint. You can also raise it with your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra, which handles agromet outreach in your area.

If you still get no response, you have the right to file an RTI application under the Right to Information Act 2005 with the public information officer of the concerned IMD office, the AMFU or the KVK, asking why the service is not reaching your area and when it will resume. Registering your land on the Farmer ID and Agristack registry can also help link you correctly to local schemes and services.

Yes. The Meghdoot app, the Kisan Suvidha app, mKisan SMS alerts and the Kisan Call Centre are all free for farmers. There is no subscription or fee to receive your district agromet advisory.

The main agromet advisory is issued every Tuesday and Friday for your district and block. Separate severe weather alerts and impact based forecasts can arrive on any day when dangerous weather is expected.

Meghdoot is a smartphone app from the Ministry of Earth Sciences that shows your district advisory plus a five-day forecast. mKisan sends the advice as an SMS, which is better if you do not use a smartphone or internet. You can use either or both.

Call the Kisan Call Centre toll free on 1800-180-1551 and ask to be registered on the mKisan service for agromet advisories in your language and location. The alerts then reach you by text message.

The advisory is built on a medium range weather forecast for the next five days at district and block level, covering rainfall, temperature, humidity and wind speed and direction.

First check that your state, district and crop are set correctly in the app, as a wrong district is the usual cause. If it is still blank, call 1800-180-1551 or contact your local Krishi Vigyan Kendra to be re-registered.

Treat it as expert guidance for your district and block, not a field-by-field instruction. Combine it with what you see in your own field. A 2020 NCAER study found most surveyed farmers changed at least one practice on the basis of these advisories.

You can file an RTI application under the Right to Information Act 2005 with the public information officer of the relevant IMD office, Agromet Field Unit or Krishi Vigyan Kendra, asking why the service is not reaching you and when it will resume.

• https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1913976
• https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1739245
• https://mausam.imd.gov.in/responsive/servicesMetAgriculture.php
• https://imdagrimet.gov.in/
• https://mkisan.gov.in/Home/About