Agricultural Meteorology Programme (AgMP)

Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate and Farmers

Information for specifc countries and regions

West Africa		Ethiopia		India

Concept Note

Objectives

The main objective of these seminars is to make farmers more self-reliant by helping them become better informed about effective weather and climate risk management for the sustainable use of natural resources for agricultural production. Another objective is to increase the interactions between the farmers and the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services of the world.

Expected outcomes of Roving Seminars

• The Roving Seminars will help raise the awareness of the farming community of the current advances in the provision of weather and climate information for facilitating operational decisions on farm.
  
  
• Feedback obtained from the farmers will help the personnel from the Meteorological Services and the Agricultural Extension Agencies to design more improved products for use by farmers and to improve the channels of communication to provide information to the farmers.
  
  
• Summary reports from the seminars will help to understand the current methods of weather and climate risk management at the farm level in different parts of the world and help introduce improved risk management tools for the farming community.

Top of Page

Proposed activities

Part I – Weather and Climate of the Farming Region, Climate Change and Farming Risks

The first half of the seminar is devoted to providing information in local language on the following aspects weather and climate in the region:

a) Weather

• Short term weather forecasts
• Clouds
• Weather maps
• Weather forecasting terms
  

b) Climate

• Seasonal climate patterns
• Forecasting
• Drought alerts
• Using rainfall records

c) Future climate change in their region and implications

d) Climatic risk in production of different crops in their region

e) Better risk management

Presentation on the above topics are interactive and promote a good dialogue with farmers.

Part II –  Farmer Perception of Weather and Climate Information Provision and Feedback

The second half of the day, following lunch, is devoted to obtaining feedback from the farmers on the weather and climate issues in their farming operations and the nature of assistance they need.

Primary emphasis here is placed on free and frank exchange of ideas and information. This part of the Seminar will be designed in such a way as to engage all the participants in discussions and obtain full information from the farmers on their needs for weather and climate information and the ways and means to improve future communication of weather and climate information to them to facilitate effective operational decision making.