Improving the reach and relevance of Climate Information Services through a Digital Public Infrastructure approach Ram Dhulipala | Anthony Whitbread October • 2023 AICCRA INFO NOTE [xxx] Report Key Messages • Climate Information Services (CIS) can • To unleash the full power of AgDataHubs, significantly help vulnerable smallholder it will be necessary to pivot towards a farmers to cope with climate risks – especially Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) if they are data-driven and dynamically approach, which shores up a suite of adjusted based on weather forecasts, and are digital solutions – including initiatives like location- and context-specific. the Hubs – that enable the basic functions essential for public and private service • To fulfil this potential, better integration delivery, and ensures they receive between meteorological and agricultural comprehensive and systemic investment. sectors is needed. • These hubs can also serve as the basis • The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate for further innovation, such as the Research for Africa (AICCRA) programme development of application programming has created national-scale digital interfaces (APIs) that private innovators platforms known as AgDataHubs as a can adopt and use to create additional means to improve access and integration in digital services. agriculture and climate data, and develop weather- and climate-informed agro- advisory services. 1 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH Introduction This InfoNote shares insights, early successes, Climate variability is a major source of risk in generalizable lessons, and next steps in this food production in the semi-arid tropics (SAT). important body of work, which offers major These regions are home to about 2.5 billion potential to address some of the most pressing people, including some 644 million of the challenges for many of the world’s poorest world’s poorest (Gitz et al., 2016; Woldearegay farmers. et al., 2018). Alongside other biophysical, socio- economic, and political factors, climate risk The challenge contributes enormously to food insecurity, Translating meteorological information and economic losses, and poverty. insights into actionable and localized advisories for farmers calls for a multi-disciplinary In this critical context, Climate Information approach (Ahmad et al., 2017; Weiss et al., Services (CIS) can significantly help smallholder 1999). This requires greater integration farmers to cope with climate risks (Carr et al., between meteorological and agricultural 2018; Guido et al., 2020; Simelton & Le, 2018) – sectors (Kim et al., 2022) than what currently pilot studies have clearly established their exists in most places. The majority of existing usefulness for smallholder decision-making climate information services for farmers (Rao et al. 2019). It’s clear that location- and currently deliver only fragmented and generic context-specific climate-informed advisory information, such as rainfall forecasts that are services that are data-driven and dynamically not specific to their locations, and crop adjusted based on weather forecasts (seasonal, management recommendations that are medium, and short-range) significantly enhance generalized for all soils and seasons. the ability of smallholder farmer to manage the vagaries of climate. If such services could instead deliver real-time, location-specific, crop-based dynamic agro- The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate advisories before the start of, and during, the Research for Africa (AICCRA) programme works main crop season, the productivity and to scale climate-smart agriculture and CIS to profitability of smallholder farmers could reach millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. substantially improve via tactical management Recently, scientists within the programme have of crop and livestock production. Yet there are developed AgDataHubs in six African countries several operational challenges inherent in the as a means to improve access and integration task of coupling meteorological information of agriculture and climate data, and develop with agriculture knowledge (represented as weather- and climate-informed agro-advisory crop calendars, crop simulations models, and services. Now, they’re advocating to scale up its other knowledge products based on science) to successes through a Digital Public generate context-specific advisories for Infrastructure (DPI) approach, whereby digital dissemination to farmers. As the weather is a climate projects like the Hubs are viewed as highly dynamic phenomenon, there is also a foundational elements of a country’s DPI, and need to continuously keep track of data and accordingly receive comprehensive and generate and update such advisories. systemic investment. 2 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH A step in the right direction: AICCRA’s data for the purposes of developing weather and AgDataHubs climate informed agro-advisory services. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital platforms can significantly These hubs were commissioned in all six of improve institutional coordination and lead to AICCRA’s country clusters, which are based in better integration of climate and weather data in Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, and agro-advisories (Kim et al., 2022) and more Zambia. Users access the hubs through effective knowledge transfer to farmers (WMO dashboards containing visualizations that 2010). One of AICCRA’s flagship initiatives aims to convey climate and weather data – such as embrace this potential through the historic climate data (Figure 1), weather data establishment of national-scale digital platforms for the current season, and forecasts from a called AgDataHubs. These are designed to diverse set of global and national sources overcome the operational challenges in (Figures 2 & 3). accessing and integrating agriculture and climate Figure 1: Historic annual rainfall data from the Kenyan Meteorology Department (KMD) and global sources on the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)’s Kenya Agricultural Observatory Platform (KAOP)/AgDataHub portal. Figure 2: Forecasts from Senegal’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANACIM) and global sources on the ANACIM’s Multidisciplinary Working Group (GTP)/AgDataHub portal 3 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH Figure 3: Forecasts from KMD and global sources on the KALRO’s KAOP/AgDataHub portal Agriculture data is ingested from global A broader solution: the Digital Public sources such as the FAO’s Global Information Infrastructure approach and Early Warning System on Food and Whilst the AgDataHubs dashboards represent Agriculture (GIEWS), FAOSTAT, and data from a significant step forward in the integration of national and regional agencies. climate and weather data into agro-advisory services, their potential for unlocking the By aggregating this diverse data on climate, creativity and enterprising spirit of AgTechs weather, forecasts, soils, and agriculture – as can best be unleashed by pivoting to a Digital well as enabling insightful analysis through Public Infrastructure (DPI) approach, which dashboards and visualizations – AgDataHubs shores up a suite of digital solutions that offer powerful tools for users such as enable the basic functions essential for public agronomists, agro-meteorologists, agriculture and private service delivery. Within such an advisors and extensionists, and others in the approach, digital climate projects like the public and private sector who develop Hubs could be viewed as foundational weather- and climate-informed agro-advisory elements of a country’s DPI – and accordingly services, to perform contextual querying. receive comprehensive and systemic With appropriate capacity-building, these investment. users can then readily interpret these data to inform agro-advisories on pre-season In a DPI approach, the AgDataHub’s planning and in-season tactical management. underlying data, models, and analytical Such information can then be disseminated capabilties could be unbundled into building as text messages, voice messages, radio blocks that are atomic, independent, and broadcasts, or agro-advisory bulletins (AAB) reusable at scale, enabling others to use, (comprehensive documents that are easily configure and extend on top of them. All of adaptable for a wide range for farmers and these datasets and capabilities, when dissemination channels.) packaged as DPIs and made accessible to startups and innovators as Open APIs (application programming interfaces that are 4 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH publicly available to software developers), payments (CDPI, n.d.). The proposed DPI for could result in the development and climate-informed advisory services falls under deployment of several climate-smart digital the ‘data sharing and models’ category. Figure innovations and services, including advisories. 4 shows the data stack of AgDataHubs that could now be packaged as DPI for digital According to the Center for Digital Public agro-advisory services. In some locations, a Infrastruture (CDPI), there are five main system called the Intelligent Systems Advisory categories of DPIs: identifiers and registries; Tool (iSAT), which generates crop specific data sharing and models; signatures and advisories, is also integrated into the Hubs. consent; discovery and fulfillment; and Figure 4: Fore Data stack of DPI for digital climate-informed agro-advisory services UPI–India’s DPI to transform financial inclusion. DPI can enable economic activities in the digital age and has the potential to transform economies and support inclusive growth. It can be harnessed to foster innovation and competition, expand markets, close gaps in financial inclusion, and help make financial transfers to the vulnerable. An example is the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India. India is generally called out for poor physical infrastructure but has experienced a radical transformation in the digital space. Most notably, UPI has reshaped the universe of informal transactions that make up 85% of its economy. In January 2023 alone, eight billion such transactions, worth nearly USD200 billion, were carried out involving 300 million people and 50 million merchants — remarkable for a country that used cash for 90% of transactions a few years ago. 5 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH Future applications Climate adaptation requires concerted action Additional data streams – such as spatial soils by all actors in agri-food systems (AFS), and information, and district data on crops, embedding climate and weather data into animals, productivity, disease, pests, their decision-making is critical. Looking infrastructure, and crop and pasture extent, forward, the AgDataHubs could significantly could all support new applications and the be enhanced to provide such advisory development of new business models. services as well decision support analytics for Nurturing such innovation could also enhance other value chains. Several datasets proposed the quality and availability of agro- as part of the above stack (Figure 4) are digital meteorological advisories in return. public goods (DPGs) that – when stacked as a DPI and opened to public and private Such a shift, however, also requires innovators – have the potential to usher in a investment into other enabling conditions like digital agriculture revolution with climate and capacity building and innovation support weather data at its core. arrangements such as incubation and acceleration, as well as innovation grants. AgDataHubs are also an ideal platform to Coupled with innovation support programs deploy Large Language Models (LLMs), Open and acceleration programs, AgDataHubs AI, and AI/ML models, which could combined with Open APIs could prove an significantly enhance the generation and interesting way to test market-driven models development of agro-meteorological for bundling climate and weather data. advisories by making use of the rich and granular data that’s available, without the need for human intervention. How to: set up a new AgDataHub using a DPI approach To set up AgDataHubs in other countries, and transform these into DPIs to foster an ecosystem of innovators and create a suite of climate-smart products and services for farmers in an equitable and inclusive way, the following steps are recommended. • Map the country’s existing CIS data value chain to identify key national players and agricultural research and extension system (NARES) partners that are critical in translating climate and weather data from national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) and disseminating this as agro-advisories to farmers (Dhulipala et al. 2022; Kim et al. 2022). • Based on this mapping, identify the organization upstream of these boundary organizations that can maintain and manage the AgDataHub in the future. • Identify the sources of data to build the AgDataHub stack. In most cases, climate and weather data sit with the NMHS, while agricultural and allied sectors data is generated and maintained either by national statistical units, or by agricultural statistical units within agriculture ministries. NARES institutions also operate elaborate field activities which can be sources of rich data. • In the absence of data from national and local institutional actors, global datasets based on satellite-derived data can be accessed and integrated into the AgDataHub. 6 AICCRA INFO NOTE | IMPROVING THE REACH AND RELEVANCE OF CLIMATE INFORMATION SERVICES THROUGH A DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE APPROACH How to: set up a new AgDataHub using a DPI approach (continued) • Boundary organizations like agricultural extension agencies, farmer-facing organizations (FFOs), and AgTechs are the first users of the AgDataHubs, and it will be important to create a reference application or dashboard to help them develop advisories from the hub, and then build visualizations and analytics to demonstrate how to do so. • Engage with key crop value chains in the country and start developing value chain-specific analytics, dashboards, and tools. Tools like iSAT, which work with the data from AgDataHub as an input and generate crop and location-specific advisories, can also be developed. Outputs from iSAT and any AABs can then be distributed to farmers through text, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), radio, and other channels owned by partner organizations (Ramaraj et al. 2023). Conclusion As climate change impacts on smallholder Bronson, K. (2019). Looking through a farmers’ lives and livelihoods ever more responsible innovation lens at uneven deeply across the globe, this body of work has engagements with digital farming. NJAS- growing global relevance, and contributes Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, 90, 100294. importantly to a number of debates and challenges. Firstly, the conceptualization of Carr, E. R., Goble, R., Rosko, H. M., Vaughan, C., & AgDataHub as a boundary tool, which helps in Hansen, J. (2020). Identifying climate information translating complex climate science as well as services users and their needs in Sub-Saharan Africa: a review and learning agenda. Climate amalgamating this with agro-advisory, is a and Development, 12(1), 23-41. CDPI. (n.d.). DPI pioneering effort in the domain of CIS. Overview. https://docs.cdpi.dev/dpi/readme Secondly, the AgDataHub work, data stack design, and solution architecture make up an Deichmann, U., Goyal, A., & Mishra, D. (2016). effective DPI for supporting agricultural Will digital technologies transform agriculture in adaptation in the face of climate change. developing countries?. Agricultural Finally, the AgDataHub and data stack can Economics, 47(S1), 21-33. also be viewed as a framework that guides public sector and philanthropic investments, Dhulipala, R., Joseph, J. E., Konte, O., Faye, A., which could fund institutions, efforts, and Worou, N., & Whitbread, A. M. (2022). 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Bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization, 48(4), 368-373. Woldearegay, K., Tamene, L., Mekonnen, K., Kizito, F., Bossio, D., 2018. Fostering food security and climate resilience through integrated landscape restoration practices and rainwater harvesting/management in arid and semi-arid areas of Ethiopia, in: Rainwater-Smart Agriculture in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas. Springer, pp This info note is an output of the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project. Its authors are: Ram Dhulipala, Senior Scientist – Digital Agriculture and Innovation at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Anthony Whitbread, Principal Scientist and Leader of the Sustainable Livestock Systems Program at ILRI. AICCRA is supported by a grant from the International Development Association of the World Bank. 8