Projects of Agricultural Meteorology Programme

The WMO Agricultural Meteorology Programme (AgMP) is currently implementing, managing, and/or assisting partner institutions in several projects based on donor funding.

Caribbean Agrometeorological Inititaive (CAMI)

The Caribbean Agro-meteorological Initiative (CAMI) is funded by the European Community through the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP Group), Science and Technology Programme. The project partners in the CAMI Project are:

National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago;
World Meteorological Organization (WMO);
Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI)
Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH).

The purpose of the project is to assist the farming community in the Caribbean region through provision of information through the regional network of Meteorological and Agricultural Services and research institutes on predictors of the rainy season potential and development of effective pest and disease forecasting systems for improved on-farm management decisions; preparation and wide diffusion of a user-friendly weather and climate information newsletter and organization of regular forums with the farming community and agricultural extension agencies to promote a better understanding of the applications of weather and climate information and to obtain feedback to provide better products from the Meteorological Services for use by the farming community.

The project is under of the overall coordation of CIMH. WMO is a member of CAMI Steering Committee and has participated in the these meetings since February 2010.

METAGRI project (Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate, Farmers in West Africa)

The State Agency for Meteorology in Spain (AEMET) and WMO have developed the METAGRI Project which provide Roving Seminars on Weather, Climate and Farmers for countries in West Africa (please see WMO Roving Seminar web page for more detailed information). This projectis part of AEMET's AFRIMET project.

Rockefeller Foundation Grant for the Training of Trainers on Weather and Climate Information and Products for Agricultural Extension Services in Ethiopia

The Rockefeller Foundation Grant for the Training of Trainers on weather and climate information and products for the Agricultural Extension Services in Ethiopia was signed in December 2009. The aim of the project was to familiarize Agricultural Extension Workers with using weather and climate information and their applications in operational farm management. Seminars will be held in each chosen district that will bring together the Agricultural Extension Workers with local farmers to give the Extension Officers “hands-on experience” in transferring Weather and Climate Information to the community, obtain input and feedback from the farming community on specific issues they need assistance with in relation to weather and climate, their information needs and also to commence the ongoing engagement of the farmers in the project. A planning meeting was held in March 2010 in Ethiopia to develop a detailed work plan for the project. The first training of trainers session washeld in Addis Ababa in April 2011. 15 roving Seminars were organized in September and October 2011 in various districts around Ethiopia.

World Bank / Lake Victoria Project

The World Bank has funded a three year project entitled “Towards A Regional Framework For Weather And Climate Services For Food Aid, Food Security, Maritime Transport Safety Contributing To Disaster Risk Reduction In Lake Victoria Region” that is being coordinated by several WMO departments.

Program activities include addressing under-investments in weather and climate monitoring systems and weak capacity in hydromet services; helping countries develop forecasting capabilities to produce accurate and timely information; and improving systems for the dissemination of tailored information to end users.

The overall objective of the Grant is to:

Develop the conceptual framework for effective climate and weather services in the Lake Victoria region;
Build capacity for the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) in the countries in the Lake Victoria region;
Develop and enhance applications to improve delivery of products and services with a focus on:
1. agricultural food security including food aid; and
2. safety of fishing and transport in the Lake Victoria region.

Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP)

The Severe Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project (SWFDP) was developed under the guidance of the WMO Commission for Basic Systems. The SWFDP is an excellent way to apply the cascading approach for forecasting severe weather in three levels, as follows:

global NWP centres to provide available NWP products, including in the form of probabilities;
regional centres to interpret information received from global NWP centres, run limited-area models to refine products, liaise with the participating NMHSs;
NMHSs to issue alerts, advisories, severe weather warnings; to liaise with DMCPAs and the media, and to contribute to the evaluation of the project.

In East Africa, a SWFDP was established with the following objectives:

To establish the technical operating infrastructure of the demonstration project incorporating the cascading forecasting process, in order to commence improvements in the lead time and accuracy of forecasts for extreme weather phenomena;
To develop/enhance dissemination systems to improve delivery of products and services to the general public, disaster management and media as the main users with a particular focus on:
- agricultural activities, food security and food aid;
- safety of fishing and transport vessels on the Lake Victoria and over the coastal areas of western Indian Ocean;
To improve communication of warnings and forecasts with users at all levels but with a particular focus on the community level with a view to measuring progress in the uptake and use of the information provided through the project, at the community level.

ANADIA-MALI project

The ANADIA-MALI (Assessment of Natural Disasters in Agriculture) project is funded by Italian Cooperation. The objectiveof this project is to develop pilot projects on assessing the impact of floods and droughton agriculture. A Drought Monitoring Training Workshop organized by WMO and the National Meteorological Service of Mali was held in Bamako, Mali from 14 to17 September 2009. There were 27 participants overall with 22 participants from Mali, four lecturers from the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. The participants from Mali included representatives of the Multi-disciplinary Working Group (GTP in French) in Mali: the National Meteorological Service (DMN), Ministry of Agriculture (DNA), National Hydrological Service (DNH), and the Institute of Agricultural Research (IER).

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