Patna: Fifty-nine blocks spread across Nalanda, Supaul and East Champaran districts are to have telemetric weather stations and 778 panchayats in these districts will have telemetric rain gauges by March 2018 under an agriculture department project named "Meghdoot".

Meghdoot aims at accurate weather data in real time for better weather advisories as well as an enhanced early warning system for disaster risk reduction. At present, the state depends on the India Meteorological Department's Patna office for weather data.

Bihar is natural disaster-prone, and more than half of the total cultivated land of 57 lakh hectare is largely dependent on rain for irrigation.

A senior agriculture official said the financial bid process would be initiated to select the agency to supply the required equipment.

The department on December 22 signed an MoU with the Space Application Centre, Ahmedabad, for cooperation on satellite-based meteorological data and forecasting.

"The advance information about weather would not only help farmers in planning but also reduce their input cost and enhance their income," said agriculture minister Prem Kumar.

He said the project would cover other districts in coming years, and Gaya and Arwal would be up next. Under Meghdoot Rs 14.86 crore is to be spent in the three districts.

Enhancing farmers' income is one of the major goals of Bihar's third agricultural roadmap, which entails expenditure of Rs 1.54 lakh core from 2017 to 2022 on agriculture and allied sectors.

A telemetric weather station collects data such as humidity, rainfall, wind speed and direction, temperature and atmospheric pressure. A rain gauge measures rainfall.