Climate Sense

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reached all the major regions of the country. Researchers

also appeared on several TV and radio programmes and

prepared numerous articles for the major newspapers. Via

these sundry communications, the researchers presented

the results of the latest climate forecasts, the evolution of

the monitored vegetation status, and the results of the crop

and pasture simulation models.

This continuous communication between researchers and

the public andprivate agricultural sectors provided stakehold-

ers with the most updated, objective and sound information

on the status and evolution of the drought. Emergency situa-

tions are often characterized by the existence of an overflow

of information frommany different sources, andwith varying

levels of objectivity and scientific soundness. This informa-

tion overflow often causes confusion and hampers private

and public sector stakeholders taking effective responsive

actions. In such scenarios identifying trustworthy sources

of understandable, relevant and actionable information is

crucial for making decisions at any level.

Insights derived from the comparative drought study

include:

• Moving from ‘crisis management’ to ‘risk management’

requires climate-related information and products that

are relevant, trusted, timely and actionable

• Climate related information and products need to be

communicated to stakeholders in formats that are

understandable and directly connected to sectoral infor-

mation upon which they can act

• Information and products can only be effectively applied

to inform and improve decisions if adequate institutional

arrangements and policies are in place.

a crisis management approach. In the livestock sector the direct losses

attributed to the drought due to animal death equalled USD300 million.

However, the actual losses were much larger, since the reduction in the

population of breeding animals was felt for several years after 1989.

Several changes had occurred in Uruguay by the time of the 1999-

2000 droughts. Firstly, the government had created two institutions,

the National Emergency System (NES) and the National Commission

for Drought (NCD). The NES is appointed directly by the office of the

President of Uruguay, and had played a key role in crisis management

activities during the 1997-98 El Niño floods. The NCDwas created under

the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture and included representa-

tives of the research community, a few governmental offices and several

organizations from the private sector.

Also, the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INIA) had

formed a Climate, Environment and Satellite Agriculture interdiscipli-

nary team (GRAS), which started collaborative research with staff of the

International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). The INIA-

IRI collaboration included research projects in the following areas:

• Applications of seasonal climate forecasts in the agricultural sector

(with the University of Uruguay)

• Development of an information and decision support system (IDSS)

for the agricultural sector of Uruguay (with NASA’s Goddard Institute

for Space Studies, the Soils Department of Uruguay and the National

Agricultural Research Institute of Argentina).

These research projects became active during the period when the first

negative impacts of the 1999-2000 drought were being felt in Uruguayan

agriculture, and proved to have major impacts on the government

response. The INIA-IRI collaborative projects included the creation of

a Technical Working Group (TWG) for improving the dissemination

and applications of seasonal climate forecasts. The TWG was composed

of agricultural and climatic researchers, as well as by representatives of

the major farmer organizations, agribusiness and governmental offices.

The TWGmet every three months immediately after the southeast South

America Regional ClimateOutlook Fora (RCOF). During the TWGmeet-

ings the climate scientists presented the regional outlook produced in the

RCOF, as well as the results of their own climate research conducted at the

national level. The agricultural scientists presented advances on the tools

to apply climate information, while the stakeholders from the public and

private sector discussed the results and limitations of the information they

received. In addition to creating the adequate environment to improve the

applications of climate information, these meetings were crucial for the

dissemination of the climate outlooks to the agricultural sector.

Furthermore, the INIA/IRI project for developing the IDSS included

two activities that were also used extensively by the public and private

sectors responding to the 1999-2000 drought. Firstly, the IDSS included

calibrated and tested crop simulation models that were used to identify

agronomic practices better adapted to the drought conditions. Also, the

INIA/IRI research group included two types of satellite data: AVHRR and

Landsat images. The AVHRR images (1 kilometre) were used to monitor

the vegetation status (NDVI) throughout the season for the entire

country. Maximum monthly NDVI values were expressed in absolute

terms and as deviations from long-termmean values.

All the information produced in these collaborative projects was

published on the GRAS-INIAweb page

(www.inia.org.uy/GRAS

) where

it is available to farmers, agribusiness representatives, agronomists

and government officers. In addition, IRI and GRAS-INIA staff gave

several live presentations and teleconferences in collaboration with the

Extension Service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, which

View across the Argentine pampas in summer, with cattle drinking

water from a pond fed by a windmill water pump