In a significant upgradation of its agromet services for farmers, the Government will now provide district specific weather information with a longer-range forecast that will enable them to manage agricultural practices in a more efficient way. Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday launched the upgraded agromet services provided by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMWRF), in all districts of the country. Agromet services, which come in the form of advisories and include weather information relevant for crops and livestock, are currently being provided on a zonal basis with the country being divided into 127 zones for the purpose. However, it was noticed that weather patterns varied widely within a zone and a uniform forecast for a zone was not found to be very useful. Based on demands of the end-users of the service, scientists at the IMD and NCMWRF evolved a model to make district-specific forecasts. Within a district, the fluctuations of weather are far less and the forecasts are likely to be more useful for farmers. Also, instead of the four-day forecasts, farmers will be provided with a five-day information.For efficient service, the IMD is also going in for a massive upgradation of its network of stations. As of now, there are 125 Automatic Weather Stations across the country. Based on the new forecasts, advisories are already being issued from Sunday.