Climate Exchange

Climate services for agricultural

production in Guinea Bissau

Francisco Gomes, National Institute of Meteorology, Guinea Bissau

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uinea Bissau is a relatively small territory in West

Africa. Its population of 1.5 million inhabits an archi-

pelago totalling some 36,125 square kilometres in

an area of low altitude. These characteristics mean that the

country is highly susceptible to the effects of climate variabil-

ity with an associated increased risk of flooding from rain and

salt water in arable areas, impacting agricultural production.

Guinea Bissau’s main economic activities revolve around agri-

culture and livestock, both of which are impacted by variable

rainfall. According to the Department of Agricultural Statistics,

30 per cent of the area is equivalent to 1.41 million hectares of

arable land, of which 200,000 hectares are low land and more

than 1 million hectares are mangrove ecology areas.

The agri-

cultural sector is threatened by the effects of various conditions

such as drought, flood, high water, salinization and coastal

erosion. The high rainfall variability from one season to another,

coupled with unprecedented drought in the Sahel during the

1970s and 1980s, led the scientific community to seek ways to

enable seasonal predictability in the Sahel, resulting in opera-

tional applications for seasonal forecasting such as PRESAO in

West Africa. On the other hand, there is a strong demand in sub-

Saharan Africa for climate information that relates to local needs

and seasons, such as the beginning and end of the rainy season.

All these elements must be able to respond to customer needs and

serve as working tools of climate services.

The need for a climatological service for agriculture in Guinea

Bissau is justified by the fact that this industry is the basis of

the country’s largest economy, employing 82 per cent of rural

manpower and contributing with 50 per cent of gross domestic

product and 93 per cent of exports, according to data from the

World Bank. The sector is highly dependent on climatic factors

such as rainfall, due to the low level of mechanization of agricul-

tural production systems. Due to a lack of rainwater management

systems, a small amount of rainfall actually benefits agriculture

while the rest is lost through seepage and surface drainage into

rivers.

It is therefore imperative that the climatological service

seeks to regulate the needs of the agricultural sector and improve

the products available to minimize the effects of climate variabil-

ity on yield losses in agricultural production.

Addressing the climate challenge

Climate risks in agriculture in Guinea Bissau are enormous, and

agro-climatic modern knowledge is very limited. The area is

managed mainly by empirical knowledge that enables subsistence

agriculture, despite the economic importance of the sector. This

griculture

considerably increases the gap between climate services

offered and the needs of users, and makes it difficult

to trade between service users. On the other hand, the

responsiveness of climate services is too slow to meet

the challenges of climate variability in the sector.

Climate service responsibilities are divided between

the National Institute of Meteorology (INM), which

manages the synoptic and agro-climatic networks,

and the National Water Resources which operates the

hydroclimatic service and data relating to it. Relatively

limited operational capabilities have been weakened by

the political and military conflict from 1998 to 1999,

during which the observation network and the weather

media were ransacked. In addition, there are damages

and shortages of human resources in sufficient quality

and quantity to enable a means of operation.

Despite this status, the climate service leads many

activities to meet the needs of users, and particularly the

area of agriculture. The provision of a climate service

for agriculture began in a systematic way in 1987, with

the Meteorological and Hydrological Services build-

ing project funded by the United Nations Development

Fund (UNDP) and executed by the World Meteorological

Organization (WMO).

Through this project, observation

networks including seven synoptic stations, 19 agro-

climatic stations and 40 rainfall stations were equipped.

The service provided is based on the use of histor-

ical control data, agro-climatic information and

current data. Thus, field activities are performed

annually during the rainy season to monitor crops

and help peasants to better integrate data and agro-

climatic information. This is monitored by the

Multidisciplinary Group Work (GTP) coordinated

by INM through the Department of Climatology and

Agrometeorology. Activities such as seminars and

workshops, training materials mainly relating to

climate change at the request of institutions, projects

and associations are also part of this service.

Despite the current difficulties, characterized by the

lack of critical operating resources, the Department

of Climatology develops products and provides the

following benefits:

• Special ballot application

• Agro-hydrometeorological decadal and monthly

newsletters (65 copies are distributed to different

institutions)