Farmer-friendly NASA nerd | Fusion - WeRIndia

He has blown in like a fresh breeze of change in a country that has been battered by angry weather through centuries. Ramakrishna Nemani from Hyderabad, a senior Indian earth scientist from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has adapted its technology to protect Indian farmers against climatic phenomena like floods and droughts. His efforts have also ensured that crop insurance reaches the deserving farmer.

Top-class TOPS, or Terrestrial Observation and Predicting System, got a 15-month extension recently, after having been tested for two years on a pilot basis by the Maharashtra government. The earth scientist is also hobnobbing with local authorities to implement the technology for Telengana and Andhra.

The NASA expert is trying to collect data related to the climate through satellite remote sensing and ground weather stations and human inputs. He is using climatic forecasting and ecosystem models to understand crop insurance, and estimates and categorises risk regions and forecasts relevant to climatic conditions.

“The idea is to make sure that we provide flawless scientific evidence so that insurance goes to the deserving farmer who has suffered crop loss and not to a farmer who has a fully functioning borewell, but continues to claim insurance by using devious measures,” he said.

In NASA, weather patterns, droughts and rains are regularly researched. He has always adapted the technology by integrating satellite and climatic data to predict the yield of crops for Indian farmers. He uses data to make sure that the farmers are protected from severe weather patterns by injecting efficiency into crop insurance systems. Along with his team, he has collected 30 years of data in 20,000 villages of Maharashtra against existing climatic conditions between 2012 and 2015, collating information related to bajra, wheat, soyabean and jowar crops.