Delivering climate information to rural households: Forecasts and capacity building

Abstract

Providing climate and weather services to help farmers plan production operations (e.g. select varieties, determine planting dates) is an important approach to climate-smart agriculture (CSA). These services refer to a broad set of information and products that help farmers understand the impacts of climate and weather on their actions, including: past records, long-term climate predictions, current forecasts, and information about the best farming systems for local conditions. All these are key for adapting the productive system to climate conditions and for designing risk-mitigation instruments (e.g., insurances). Most smallholders do not have access to the information they need in a systematic, reliable way. There are several steps that can be taken to improve the situation: national meteorological services need to provide locally relevant forecasts; national agricultural research and extension systems need to translate and communicate climate and farming information in ways that farmers can make practical decisions; and meteorological and agricultural institutions need to work together to improve farmers’ capacity to understand and use the information provided. ICRAF and its partners have been at the forefront of improving climate and weather services and helping farmers to respond to climate change and variability. This brief details some of those efforts.