Climate Exchange

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the world food supply and demand situation under continuous review. It
issues reports on the world food situation and provides early warnings of
impending food crises in individual countries. Improved understanding
of climate variability including ENSO effects, the implications of weather
variables for food security and the vulnerability of rural communities,
have become integral to the food security information systems.
Multi-tier and action-oriented climate services
Action-oriented climate advice integrates information on differ-
ent time scales (intra-seasonal, seasonal and long-term) for risk/
opportunity management. Intra-seasonal to inter-annual climate
variability impacts the agricultural sector and, therefore, many
agricultural decisions can benefit from multi-tier, action-oriented
climate services. Information about the passage of the Madden-
Julian Oscillation and propagation characteristics of the Monsoon
Intra-Seasonal Oscillation provide capabilities for explaining intra-
seasonal variability relevant to agricultural applications.
Seasonal climate predictions are of immense use to agriculture
ministries, non-governmental organizations and private compa-
nies for policy and the seasonal planning process, in addition to
seasonal crop and livestock management decisions by farmers and
herders. Approaches to applying seasonal to inter-annual climate
predictions, including use of ENSO-related climate information
products, are well developed and widely demonstrated.
Index-based insurance
In 2005, FAO estimated that the total annual agricultural and forestry
insurance premiums worldwide in 2001 amounted to some US$6.5
billion. According to the World Bank (2009), the direct premiums
for agricultural insurance have grown rapidly in recent years to reach
US18.5 billion in 2008. Even though Index-based insurance products
for agriculture represent an attractive alternative, the current insurance
mechanisms are not adequately covering the smallholder farmers.
Climate information services could play a major role in providing
high-resolution climate data to farmers and insurance managers so
as to encourage them to make use of the insurance mechanisms.
Strengthening of weather observation networks, monitoring of
extreme climate events, standardization of indices, data sharing,
early warning systems and capacity building are pre-requisites.
Localized farm advisories
The analysis of real-time weather, crop information, weather and
climate forecasts, costs of inputs and prices of farm produce are
needed to prepare needs-based and location-specific farm advisories.
Major elements in implementing localized farm advisories are:
• Collection of climate, crop and socioeconomic data
• Data analysis and prediction
• Development of impact outlooks and management practices
• Preparation of farmer agro-advisors.
The approach aims to provide a full range of advice regarding crops
to be planted, time and quantity of inputs that might be used, and
management practices to be followed to prevent or reduce risks, so
users will be ready to execute management decisions at short notice
based on the anticipated weather and climate.
The local advisories will contain information on input availability
with agricultural support services, input suppliers, local coop-
eratives and farmer’s or community-based organizations to make
practical and locally relevant decisions.
Climate data, analysis tools and methods
Building a database of climate, soil, agronomic and crop
phonological information is important to effectively
make use of climate information. Historical daily, weekly
and monthly data on precipitation, temperature, solar
radiation, relative humidity and evaporation etc, are the
essential variables of the database. Planning of adapta-
tion and mitigation practices requires climate change
scenarios for the future.
Close cooperation between agencies and organiza-
tions dealing with agriculture and climate services is
needed to establish a user interface platform (UIP) to
promote unrestricted exchange of information between
providers and users. The UIP mechanisms are catalysts
for strengthening climate monitoring, building climate
databases, advocating climate policies at national and
regional levels, capacity building, education and train-
ing, and developing user-friendly climate information
products. FAO promotes such interface mechanisms
between NMHSs and agricultural support services at
national and sub-national levels, and provides services
on data, tools and methods to help reduce the impacts
of climate variability ).
Capacity development
The capacity to identify, collect and share data, use
information and relevant methods for data analyses
and build knowledge relevant for climate and weather
information and food security is critical. A transfer of
recent knowledge from climate science, as well as the
strengthening of the capacity for agrometeorological
observation, the development of customized forecasting
products, the management of data and modelling for
climate impact assessment and application of climate
information at the farm level are of the highest priority.
Agriculture extension services need to be strengthened
in order to address climate risks and plan for adaptation
and mitigation if these are to provide an efficient inter-
face between policymakers and the farming community.
Enabling policies and plans
There are several challenges to be addressed for the contin-
ued provision of climate information for decision-making
in agriculture at global, national and local levels. The key
challenges are financial constraints, restricted institu-
tional mandates and disabling policies. Communication
and feedback mechanisms between information providers
and users can be sustained by setting up multi-disciplinary
institutional mechanisms at national and sub-national
levels, with specific roles and responsibilities pertaining to
generation, translation, communication and use of climate
information for decision-making in agriculture.
Government agencies and institutions seeking climate
information for food and agriculture can be advised to priori-
tize the need for climate services in their development plans,
strategies and programmes. Such a prioritization can provide
opportunities to leverage funds and technical support for
continuous availability of climate information at different
levels for decision-making in agriculture and food security.
Agriculture
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