Some fake weather experts are allegedly still predicting rain and advising farmers to carry out their activities
Hamid Dabholkar, son of slain rationalist Narendra Dabholkar and a member of MANS, told TOI , “The govt machinery is proving to be inadequate to spread scientific information to every farmer. Hamid said while MANS volunteers were trying to reach out to as many farmers as they could, state govt should get into action and use its machinery to not only create awareness among farmers but also to take action against such social media users. Pune: Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS) urged state govt to take legal action against self-proclaimed weather experts allegedly misguiding farmers with unscientific forecasts amid drought-like situation. MANS appealed to farmers not to invest in agricultural activities based on such people’s advice. Taking advantage of those gaps in the system, some self-proclaimed weather experts are using social media to spread unscientific forecasts and misguide farmers. “The state is going through a tough phase of drought-like situation and farmers should be advised not to spend much on farming activities. Some of these fake weather experts are still predicting rain and advising farmers to carry out their activities.
MANS members said their advice should have been spread to every farmer. Milind Deshmukh, the state executive committee member of MANS, said, “We knew that there would be rain deficiency before the arrival of monsoon. National and international weather experts warned of the El Nino effect on this year’s monsoon. Based on it, farmers should have been advised to be conservative in their agricultural expenses. Some social media influencers have been spreading wrong predictions. Farmers follow those influencers and tend to listen to them. The govt should step in and stop such influencers from harming the farming community. ”