However, the Covid pandemic impacted the process, and only 199 DAMUs could be set up, each with two contractual employees – SMS Agromet and Agromet Observer.In a meeting of the Expenditure Finance Committee held in February 2023, a senior Niti Aayog advisor suggested reevaluating the “necessity of providing staff at each DAMU”.The official suggested the MoES may have “centralised units instead of field units as the collection of data is automated”.On January 17, the IMD wrote to all the DAMUs, asking them to wind up their operations by the end of the financial year 2023-24. Several politicians, including Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, had opposed the move.Over the last one year, the Maharashtra-based Agrometeorological Units Association has written to the prime minister, members of Parliament, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, and Agriculture Ministry, requesting their intervention.DAMU employees said lakhs of farmers depended on them for crucial agromet advisories, which have helped increase their resilience against worsening weather and climate impacts, reducing their losses and the claim amount under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
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