WMO Commission

Belo Horizonte/Geneva, 21 July 2010 (WMO) – About 120 representatives from 62 countries around the world and international organizations concluded a week-long meeting of the Fifteenth Session of the WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology in Belo Horizonte, Brazil by pledging improved agrometeorological services to assist the farming community around the world to cope with the increasing impacts of climate variability and climate change.

The Commission identified several priorities for the future work of the Commission from 2010 to 2014. These include:

1. Develop enhanced services for the agricultural, livestock, forestry and fisheries communities and partner agencies
a. Climate services and specifically the development of the climate user interface as part of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)
b. Agrometeorological consultation and other user services
c. Technological applications to communicate information to the decision-makers
d. Identification of innovative risk-management systems in global food production

2. Encourage development of a knowledge sharing interface between forecasters/scientists and the agricultural decision-makers;

3. Support agrometeorological training at regional, national and local levels; and

4. Encourage the sharing of resources among WMO Members and other organizations in order to build synergies and to support human health and economic development.

In order to addresses the above priorities, the Commission appointed 64 experts from 41 countries to various Expert Terms of the Commission. Significantly, 21 of these experts are women and this is highest ever number of women experts serving in any of the eight Technical Commissions of WMO.

The Commission established a Joint Expert Team with the Joint Commission for Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) to address the cross-cutting issue of weather, climate and fisheries. It also strongly stressed the need for enhancing capacity building, especially in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island and Developing States (SIDS) to provide enhanced weather and climate information to the farming community. The Commission expressed strong support for the implementation of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) for the agricultural sector in order to protect the livelihoods of farmers, and to enhance food security.

The Commission elected Dr Byong Lee (Republic of Korea) as President and Dr (Ms) Federica Rossi (Italy) as Vice-President.

WMO is the United Nations System’s authoritative voice on weather,
climate and water.

For more information, please contact:

At the WMO Communications and Public Affairs Office:

Ms Carine Richard-Van Maele, Chief, Tel: +41 (0)22 730 83 15, E-mail: cpa@wmo.int,

At the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia – INMET:

Francisco de Assis DINIZ, WMO Focal Point in Brazil, Tel: (55) 61 2102 4608 / 3343 1976 – E-mail: assis.diniz@inmet.gob.br

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