Skymet undertakes various state-level activities to develop “Community of Practices” to increase visibility on weather risk minimization in their territory. Communities of practice bring all the farmers as well as all the concerned players and stakeholder under one umbrella, so that the awareness and knowledge could reach to the right person at the right time.
The state-level project teams are developing community of practices by organizing cohesive activities which includes organizing farmers meeting and awareness camps, inviting subject matter experts and bank officials to interact with registered farmers, informing farmers about several government run programs in their districts, online engagements through WhatsApp and SkyMitra app, placing weather boards at strategic locations in 31 districts, and encouraging a cohort of non-registered farmers appreciate the value of risk-minimization strategies through insurance, weather and crop advisories.
State-level Teams and their Roles & Engagements: Skymet has deployed 40 field staff across 9 states of India. Each state is managed by a state coordinator who supervises a team of 3-4 area in-charges for stakeholder engagement and farmer interactions.
The state team members meet registered farmers bi-monthly and organize village level meetings on a monthly basis. They also meet farmers in smaller groups three –to- four times a week. Besides keeping the regular interactions with registered farmers, the Skymet team interacts with multiple stakeholders including the village level functionaries like the ‘Gram Sewak’ or the village ‘Sarpanch’; officials from agricultural department, agricultural universities and extension agencies; banks or elected officials at the district and state-level.
Interacting and collaborating with diverse stakeholders is essential for the effective project implementation as well as to develop the business networks to deliver weather based and allied services in the future. Various Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), Agriculture Offices (AO) and Government departments and agencies are approaching to discuss the possibilities of working jointly for a suite of services offered by Skymet.