The government wants to establish a solid framework to continue the work of district agrometeorological units (DAMUs) which until now had been operating in an ad-hoc manner, Ministry of Earth Sciences secretary M Ravichandran has said. PTI reported in August last year that the government plans to revive the network of DAMUs, which provided detailed block-level weather-related information to lakhs of farmers in the country until the India Meteorological Department (IMD) directed their closure earlier this month following instructions from Niti Aayog. "As part of the pilot project, the Earth Sciences Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry provided weather information to farmers. Agricultural meteorologists in DAMUs analyze how weather conditions will affect crops. Their primary role is to offer advice to farmers. The system functioned well, but it should not remain ad-hoc; it needs to be made permanent," Ravichandran told PTI. He said the government wants to establish a solid framework