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PROGRESS MADE IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE

AGRICULTURAL METEOROLOGY PROGRAMME – A STATUS REPORT

Mannava V.K. SivakumarWorld Meteorological Organization

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Presentation• Introduction

• Training Events in Agrometeorology

• Workshops and Meetings organized by WMO

• Workshops and Meetings Co-sponsored

• Publications

• WMO participation in meetings of UNCCD

• Representation at Meetings of other Organizations

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• The report covers the Intersessional period from November 2006 to May 2008 and those not covered by the documents of CAgM-XIV Session.

• Two meetings were organized after the submission of Doc.6. These include:

– Workshop to discuss the Terms of Reference of the Drought Management Centre for Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 29-30 May 2008)

– Symposium on Climate Change and Variability –Agrometeorological Monitoring and Coping Strategies for Agriculture (Oscarsborg, Norway, 3-6 Jun 2008)

Introduction

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• Capacity Building Workshop for Downscaling Climate Prediction Products for Agriculture and Food Security (Nairobi, Kenya, 21 Aug to 1 Sep 2006)

• Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate and Farmers (Andhra Pradesh, India, Oct-Dec 2007)

• Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers (Mekelle, Ethiopia, 16-17 May 2007)

Training Events in Agrometeorology

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• Held at the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in Nairobi

• Participants drawn from ICPAC member countries working in Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security Sectors.

• Overall objective was to build the capacity of the Agriculture and Food Security users on use of climate prediction products to derive qualitative and quantitative relationships between crop yield, rainfall and national gross domestic product as a basis for quantifying the benefit of use of climate prediction products.

Capacity Building Workshop for Downscaling Climate Prediction Products for Agriculture and

Food Security

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• Covered the theoretical concepts of downscaling methodologies.

• Participants dedicated more time training on various downscaling procedures and inferences were made on the extent to which seasonal rainfall influenced production of some crops from specific agro-climatic zones.

• Participants made some efforts to develop some simple rainfall- crop yield models that were used to forecast seasonal crop yields by holding other factors constant.

• The rainfall forecasts used in the models were generated from seasonal probabilistic rainfall outlook forecasts that were developed.

Workshop Programme

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• The major recommendations emphasized the need to do further research to build better crop-weather models with some cost benefit components that can help to quantify socio-economic benefits of enhanced use of seasonal climate information for improved food security and food security in the region.

• The workshop also recommended the need to continue to organize agricultural outlook forum in parallel with the seasonal climate outlook forum.

• The workshop also highlighted the need to factor climate information in planning and decision making processes to reduce the miseries that are often associated with climate extremes in the GHA

Workshop Recommendations

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• Nine seminars organized in nine villages in five districts.

• The number of farmers attending each seminar ranged from 70 to 95. Women farmers were given lecture modules separately.

• The seminars were intended to sensitize the farmers about the weather and climate information and their application in operational farm management.

• Lectures in local languages given on 11 different topics on weather, climate and crops.

Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India

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• During each seminar the farmers were shown/given the daily weather data for the last 30 days. These data was collected from the daily newspapers available in the villages where the seminar is being organized after pasting same in front of them a day before the event.

• Farmers responded with unparalleled enthusiasm to do the same ontheir own for their and own farm as also community benefits.

• Some farmers agreed to copy/write the weather information available daily on Television and Radio and transmit / exchange the same with other farmers.

• This operational agrometeorological tool “DVV (DinasariVatavaranam- Vyasayam)” involves no money because the newspapers are bought by villagers / farmers for learning and enlightening themselves on several issues. Management options and guidance made available to the farmers within the hand outs as also the “Vyasaya Panchangams (Agricultural Dairy)“ distributed during these seminars.

Roving Seminars in India (contd.)

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• Focussed on how to deliver practical uses and knowledge of agro-meteorological applications to increase agricultural production, and to train agricultural extension agents and agricultural experts in providing better agro-meteorological services to farmers.

• In addition, it has been possible to share the successful experience and major lessons of the Mali agrometeorological pilot project, including sessions with the participants on how agro-meteorological service can directly reach farmers.

• There were 34 participants from the agricultural extension services, 11 farmers, and 18 regional representatives for a total of 63 participants.

Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers in Mekelle, Ethiopia

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• The first day was spent on learning the experiences from Mali, based on four training presentations given by Mr Diarra on the following:

- Agrometeorological extension service in Mali

- Basics of agrometeorological observation principles and important components of agrometeorological service.

- The role of the farmers in agrometeorological observation and agrometeorological advisories.

- The role of communication and media in agro-meteorological extension service.

Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers in Mekelle, Ethiopia (contd.)

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• The presentations focused on the involvement of the farmers in the measuring rainfall on their plots to aid them in decision-making on when to sow, when to apply fertilizers, and for rain water harvesting.

• There was a lively discussion on how to make practical use of the Mali experience in Ethiopia.

• The uncertainty regarding the time of sowing was noted as one major problem facing the farmer over moisture deficient areas of Ethiopia.

• Lessons learned included: teamwork and good coordination between multi-disciplinary workers who give advice to farmers and good cooperation of the mass media.

Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers in Mekelle, Ethiopia (contd.)

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• During the second day of the seminar the native Ethiopian Amharic language was used instead of English so that the participants could express their views freely.

• Participant recommendations were given in Amharic and these covered improvement of forecasts, teamwork, communication of real-time data and bulletins in local languages, strengthening local meteorological branches and media linkages.

Roving Seminar on Weather, Climate and Farmers in Mekelle, Ethiopia (contd.)

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• Meeting to Discuss Follow-up Actions for the Establishment of the Drought Management Centre for South-eastern Europe (DMCSEE)

• International Workshop on Climate and Land Degradation

• Meeting on the Draft Project Proposal for Drought Management Centre for South-Eastern Europe (DMCSEE)

• Expert Group Meeting on Review of Curriculum in Agricultural Meteorology

• Technical Seminar on preparation towards Terms of Reference for a Regional Drought Management Centre in Central Asia (DMCCA)

• Meeting of CAgM Implementation/Coordination Team (ICT) for Agrometeorological Services

• Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of West African Agriculture

Workshops and Meetings Organized

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• Nine participants from Slovenia, the UNCCD Secretariat and the WMO Secretariat attended the meeting.

• Meeting reviewed the outcomes of the two technical workshops held in Romania and Bulgaria and the meeting organized in WMO on 26 September 2006 to select Slovenia as the host country for the DMCSEE.

• It then discussed future actions and responsibilities and agreed on a number of actions including preparation of a comprehensive project proposal; meeting to discuss the proposal; transmission of proposal to countries for their comments; organization of a project kick-off meeting; and dissemination of information on the establishment of the Centre at various fora.

Meeting to Discuss Follow-up Actions for the Establishment of DMCSEE

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• Dr Don Wilhite prepared the draft project proposal for the DMCSEE.

• Priority activities for the Centre include Data assessment and management; Drought assessment; Risk assessment and stakeholder identification; Training and capacity building; Data and information delivery systems; and Networking.

• The meeting discussed the plans for the DMCSEE Network Meeting to be held in Slovenia in mid–April 2007.

Meeting to discuss Draft Project Proposalfor DMCSEE

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• In order to address the important issue of drought and desertification in Central Asia and to explore the discuss the possibility of establishing a Regional Drought Management Centre, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the UNCCD Secretariat and WMO organized the Technical Seminar in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from 20 to 21 November 2007.

• Participants of the Seminar then discussed the preparation of a draft Terms of Reference for a Drought Management Centre for Central Asia in the context of the UNCCD. The aim, tasks, functions andname of the Centre were adopted by the participants.

• It was agreed that the updated terms of reference will be sent to all countries for their review and possible adoption at the next meeting to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 29 and 30 May 2008.

Technical Seminar on preparation towards Terms of Reference for a Regional DMCCA

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• Organized in Arusha, Tanzania, from 11 to 15 December 2006 in collaboration with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Tanzania Meteorological Agency.

• Workshop was co-sponsored by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

• Sixty four participants from 30 countries attended the workshop.

• Workshop focused on how climate induces and influences land degradation and what measures need to be taken to enhance the applications of weather and climate information to combat land degradation.

International Workshop on Climate and Land Degradation

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Workshop sessions • Opening Session

• Trends in Land Degradation

• Weather and Climate Information for Monitoring and Assessing Land Degradation

• Strategies For More Efficient Use of Weather and Climate Information and Applications for Reducing Land Degradation

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Workshop sessions • Successful Measures to Manage Land

Use, Protect Land and Mitigate Land Degradation

• Improving Implementation of National Action Programmes (NAPS)

• Working Group Discussions

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Working Group Discussions

• Three working groups :

– Current use of weather and climate information for monitoring and assessing land degradation and in developing sustainable land management practices.

– Promoting more effective use of weather and climate information for reducing land degradation

– Weather and climate information to improve the implementation of National Action Programmes (NAPs)

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• Organized from 14 to 16 March 2007 at the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) premises in New Delhi, India, to develop a revised curriculum as well as recommendations for its effective implementation.

• The meeting was co-sponsored by WMO, NAAS, the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) and the AccademiaDei Georgofili (Italy).

• Attended by 17 experts from Austria, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, and Zimbabwe including Dr Jerry Hatfield, President of ASA.

Expert Meeting on Review of Curriculum in Ag Meteorology

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• The Meeting was organized in six sessions, including an Opening Session.

• The first technical session reviewed the developments in Agricultural Meteorology over the years.

• In the session on the “Current Status of Curriculum in Agricultural Meteorology”, presentations were made by Professors from Zimbabwe, Brazil, USA, Canada, Indonesia, Austria and Italy.

• Then presentations were made on the current status of course curriculum in Agricultural Meteorology in India.

• In the session on the “Overall Programme for Post-Graduate Education in Agricultural Meteorology”, an open discussion was held and the participants were divided into two groups for developingproposals for basic courses and applied courses.

Expert Meeting on Review of Curriculum in Ag Meteorology

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a) Undergraduate programme

• Introductory Agrometeorology• Climate Change and its Impacts on Society

b) Postgraduate programme

Basic courses• Fundamental of Meteorology & Climatology• Weather, Climate and Crops• Weather, Climate and Livestock• Meteorological Hazards in Agriculture• Agrometeorological Measurements and Instrumentation• Micrometeorology• Analytical Tools and Methods For Agrometeorology

Categories of Courses in the Curriculum

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Postgraduate programme

Applied courses

a) Strategic Use of Climate Informationb) Coping with climate variability and climate changec) Coping with Extreme Meteorological Eventsd) Tactical Decision Making Based on Weather Informatione) Develop Risk Management Strategies

Training of Intermediaries

a) An Agrometeorology-related Syllabus for In-Service Training of AEIA Intermediaries

b) An agrometeorology-related Syllabus for In-Service Training of AEIB intermediaries

Categories of Courses in the Curriculum

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• It was agreed that where necessary e.g., in the applied courses, for each of the topics in a given course, curriculum will include both elementary and advanced issues. This would allow the teaching faculty the flexibility to design the course as per the needs and priorities identified in a given region.

• The meeting agreed that a Report on the “Guidelines for Curricula in Agricultural Meteorology “ will be prepared in all the different UN languages and copies will be distributed to all the Agricultural Universities around the world to effect the much needed changes in post-graduate education in Agricultural Meteorology to cope with the new challenges.

Final Decisions

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• Meeting held at the Viet Nam Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology in Hanoi, S.R. Viet Nam, from 12 to 14 December 2007.

• Eight participants from 7 countries and the WMO Secretariat attended the meeting.

• Dr Sue Walker, Chairperson of the ICT presided over the meeting and will give you more details later during this meeting.

Meeting of the CAgM ICT for Agrometeorological Services

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• Meeting held at the AGRHYMET Center in Niamey, Niger from 23 to 24 April 2008.

• The meeting was co-sponsored by the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET).

• Twenty experts from Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Spain and Switzerland and from AGRHYMET and the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) participated in the meeting.

Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of Agriculture

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• Meeting recommended the organization of roving seminars in five countries —Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal— to assist farmers in providing them with climate information and applications for increasing productivity of their cropping systems.

• Fifty one-day seminars will be organized in collaboration with the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in 2008-2009.

Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of Agriculture (contd.)

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• The overall goal of the roving seminars is to secure farmers’ self reliance through better informing them about effective weather and climate risk management and the sustainable use of natural resources for agricultural production.

• Typically they are of one-day duration and bring together farmers from a group of villages to a centralized location in different regions of the five Sahelian countries.

Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of Agriculture (contd.)

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• The morning is devoted to providing information in the local language on different aspects of weather and climate in the region, future climate change and implications, climatic risk in production of different crops in their region and better riskmanagement.

• The afternoon is devoted to obtaining feedback from the farmers on the weather and climate issues in their farming operations and the nature of the assistance they need.

• Feedback obtained from the farmers will help the staff of Meteorological Services and Agricultural Extension Agencies to design improved products for use by farmers and to improve the channels of communication with the farmers.

Expert Meeting on Agrometeorology in the Service of Agriculture (contd.)

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• Project Kick-Off Meeting for the Drought Management Centre for South Eastern Europe (Ljubljana, Slovenia, 17-19 April 2007)

• Workshop on African Fire Danger Requirements (Accra, Ghana, 15-16 November 2007)

• First Venezuelan Congress and 5th Latin American Meeting in Agrometeorology (Maracay, Venezuela, 28 – 30 November 2007).

• Workshop on Climate and Crop Disease Risk Management: An International Initiative in the Asia-Pacific Region (Dhaka, Bangladesh, 11-14 February 2008).

• International Symposium on Agrometeorology and Food Security (Hyderabad, India, 18-21 February 2008).

• Climate Change and Biodiversity in the Americas (Panama City, Panama, 25-29 February 2008)

Workshops and Meetings Co-sponsored

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Special Issues of Scientific Journals

• Stone, R., M.V.K. Sivakumar and P.J.A. Burt (Eds.). 2006. Weather, Climate and Farmers. Special Supplement of Meteorological Applications, Volume 13, Supplement 1. 93 pp.

• Hansen, J.W., M.V.K. Sivakumar and B.C. Bates (Eds.). 2006. Advances in the Application of Climate Prediction to Agriculture. Climate Research Special 16, Volume 33, No. 1.

• Desjardins, R.L., M.V.K. Sivakumar and C. de Kimpe (Eds.). 2007. The Contribution of Agriculture to the State of Climate. Special Issue of the Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Volume 142, Issues 2-4. 324 pp.

• Meinke, H (Ed.). 2007. Climate Predictions for Better Agricultural Risk Management. Special Issue of Australian Journal of AgriculturalResearch. Volume 58, Issue 10.

Publications brought out during the Inter-Sessional Period

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Books

• Sivakumar M.V.K. and R. Motha (Eds.). 2007. Managing Weather and Climate Risks in Agriculture. 2007. Berlin: Springer. 503 pages

• Sivakumar M.V.K. and J.W. Hansen (Eds.). 2007. Climate Prediction and Agriculture: Advances and Challenges. Berlin: Springer. 306 pp.

• Sivakumar M.V.K. and N. Ndiang’ui (Eds.). 2007. Climate and Land Degradation. Berlin: Springer. 623 pp.

Publications brought out during the Inter-Sessional Period

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CAgM Reports - 2007

• No. 99 Fire in Forests, Rangelands and Agricultural Systems, by A. R. Riebau and D. G. Fox. WMO/TD No. 1313. 27 pp.

• No. 100 Impact of the Use of Meteorological and ClimatologicalData on Fisheries and Aquaculture, by Ngo Sy Gai and Paul Taylor. WMO/TD No. 1342. 32 pp.

• No. 101 Impacts of Desertification and Drought and other Extreme Meteorological Events, by S.T. Gathara, L.G. Gringof, E. Mersha, K.C. Sinha Ray, and P. Spasov. WMO/TD No. 1343. 85 pp.

• No. 102. Use Of Seasonal Forecasts And Climate Prediction In Operational Agriculture, by M. Harrison, A. Kanga., G.O. Magrin, G. Hugo, I. Tarakidzwa, C. Mullen, H. Meinke. WMO/TD No. 1344. 81 pp

Publications brought out during the Inter-Sessional Period

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Brochures

• Climate Change and Desertification. 2007. Poster and Brochure.

• Drought Monitoring and Early Warning: Concepts, Progress, and Future Challenges. 2006. WMO Pub. No 1006.

Publications brought out during the Inter-Sessional Period

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UNCCD

• Eighth Session of the Conference of Parties (COP-8) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), held from 3 to 14 September 2007 in Madrid, Spain.

• International Steering Committee Meeting for the Drought Management Centre for South Eastern Europe, held from 6 to 7 March 2008 in Bled, Slovenia.

Other Organizations

• Please see the list presented on page 12 of Doc.6

Participation in Meetings related to UNCCDand Representation in Meetings of Other Organizations

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Thank You !