Shailesh bhai Chagan bhai Solanki is a beneficiary farmer in Khalipur village of Vadodara district in Gujarat. He owns 5 acre of land and primarily grows Cotton, Castor & Rose. Shailesh bhai is associated with Skymet since past 3.5 years. He said, he receives weather forecast and crop advisory SMS twice in a week. Through the crop advisory SMS, the information about the seeds and chemicals to be used for the better productivity, are been shared. He said he also uses the SkyMitra App for the real time weather information. According to Shailesh bhai, the area-incharge arranges the farmer meeting once in a month and shares the latest information about the seeds and farm technology.

The area-incharge also facilitates them on the crop insurance so that the crop risks against the weather vagaries could be mitigated. Before being associated with the project, he said he used to do sowing and irrigate the fields without any weather information, resulting into the loss of seed and water, if it rained just after the activity. Similarly, he often faced the loss of chemicals and time as rain felled just after the application of chemicals. He said, since he has started receiving the weather forecast and crop advisories, he is able to make 20% to 25% more profits than earlier.

During the current year, he cultivated Cotton during the monsoon, and he was about to apply the regular chemicals on the crop, but then he received SMS from Skymet stating that it might rain soon and following this, he did not apply the chemicals at that time and saved his money on chemical and labour. Such incidences have occurred twice in a year. He said, the cost of cultivation is been reduced since he is associated with project. He said he is happy with the services under the project and he recommends the same to his other fellow farmers.