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the National Weather Service has only very limited means of
operating and investment. The budget essentially provides the
salaries of workers and other employees.
As an indicator to measure the services provided to the agricul-
tural sector, assessment based essentially on agro-climatic conditions
is done in October every year by Agrhymet, FAO, WFP and the
Government, to predict the performance of each crop. A field evalu-
ation is also made by the GTP at the end of each campaign.
Difficulties
In the context of users, the difficulties lie in interpreting weather
and climate information for their integration in appropriate
agricultural activities. These difficulties are at any level, such as
policymakers, agronomists and other users.
Rainfall variability and its temporal distribution cause enor-
mous difficulties for farmers as they tend to plant varieties of
crops suited to a year of low rainfall. Despite the existence of
seasonal forecasts and adaptable varieties for different rain-
fall conditions, their applications are still a big challenge and
continue to cause considerable losses to agricultural yields,
according to the GTP’s assessment reports on land.
Outlook
Given the tasks expected of the National Weather Service and the
quality requirements of some users such as agriculture, maritime
and civil protection, the INM has been established as an autono-
mous institute since October 2011. This autonomy should enable
the meteorological service to use the flexible management to
improve the development of various products and provide high
quality services. However, it should be noted that even in the case
of the institute, there has been no change in the average investment
and operation of the national budget.
In addition, for better management of the agricultural
sector’s vulnerability to climate risks, climate services
are essential. Improved access to climate information is
needed to guide the development of risk management
and natural resources, agriculture and infrastructure.
Improved forecasts and early warning systems are
essential. Observations, historical data, modelling
studies for floods, rainfall and humidity of the soil are
crucial to reducing disaster risk. An operational and
improved observation network, with the appropriate
databases to store historical data, and digitization of
current and archive information, are also necessary.
The current database is being recovered and scanned
using Excel software for the damage caused by the
political and military conflict of 1998-1999.
On the field of infrastructure it is imperative that
all synoptic stations have at least one building to
house meteorological facilities, and that the insti-
tute’s headquarters are rehabilitated.
“It is envisaged to establish an integrated system
for the provision of climate services, and their appli-
cation to decision-making at all levels of society. This
implementation calls an unprecedented collaboration
between institutions, ignoring political boundaries,
functional and disciplinary and requires mobilization
efforts at the global level.” In this context we believe
that this study does not attempt to give examples of
references to a climate service from an operational
point of view, but shows aspects that illustrate the gap
between the most and least advanced climate services
and resources, drawing attention to the need to take
into consideration these differences.
Source: NIM
Category
Requirement
Actual
Difference
Class I
9
6
3
Class II
12
4
8
Class III
16
8
8
Administrative
3
0
3
Financial
1
0
1
Support
11
20
-9
Total
52
38
14
Personnel need and actual: Central
Category
Requirement
Actual
Difference
Class III
7
5
2
Class IV
66
29
37
Support
26
8
18
Total
99
32
57
Personnel need and actual: Network
Source: NIM
A
griculture
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