Pacific:Building the Foundation of Agro Meteorology Services

Pacific:Building the Foundation of Agro Meteorology Services

Suva, May 20, 2011 - A three week long training demystified the processes involved in agro-meteorology and provided weather specialists and agriculture officers with knowledge, tools and skills to interpret the impact of changing weather patterns on crop and livestock production. It also provided the participants with an opportunity to map the next steps in building stronger agro-meteorology services in their countries.

The workshop which ended in Nadi today was organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its “South-South Cooperation between Pacific and Caribbean Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Management,” in coordination with the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), and with support from the Nadi Meteorology Service.

The SPC’s Acting Director Land Resources Division and Team Leader Land Management and Resources Policy, Inoke Ratukalou in delivering the closing remarks said that “Climate change is already on our doorstops, even though some people think it is in the future”.

“If we take steps now to strengthen our agro meteorology systems, then we will be in a better position to survive severe climate change and we will stand a better chance of continuing to live a good life and dignified existence on our islands,” he said.

The workshop brought together 29 participants, who are mainly agriculture experts or weather specialists from 13 Pacific Island countries –Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu; as well as representatives from East Timor and the Maldives.

Roger Suat from the Department of Agriculture in Papua New Guinea said he found the training beneficial.

“In Papua New Guinea, since 1997 we have noted a decrease in crop production directly linked to changing weather patterns. I can use my knowledge of crop modeling from this training to inform farmers on what types of crops to plant in areas affected by changing weather patterns.”

Mr Suat said the workshop highlighted the importance of collaboration between the agriculture officers and weather specialists.

“We have a technical working committee on climate change, in which both the Weather Office and the Agriculture Department participates. I’ll advance the issue of working on agro meteorology in my country through this forum,” he said.

For the participant from Maldives, weather forecaster Azeema Ahmed, this workshop provided new and interesting information.

“Compared to most of the island countries present at the workshop, in my country we do not have large scale farming. We mainly have home gardens on remote islands where we grow root crops and vegetables. One of my first activities back home would be to do a survey of our food gardens and map the plants that are on the ground. Using the climate and crop models we learnt here we can then identify the crops that can be suited to changing climate conditions.”

The workshop participants also identified climate and crop data gaps that existed in their countries and pointed out that this would impact on the implementation of agro-meteorology.

Seluvaia Finaulahi, a climatologist at the Tonga Meteorological Services said her country would need to have complete data before proceeding with agro-meteorology methods.

“The models that we learnt about here all work on data. In Tonga, we do not have the extensive databases that these models run on. We will need to improve our databases and get new equipment to help us do this as well,” she said.

Vanuatu Meteorology Services’ Philip Malsale said the training was timely and beneficial.

“We are currently working closely with the Agriculture Department to pilot the seasonal forecast in the agriculture sector and are looking at setting up agro meteorology stations throughout the country which will contribute to the establishment of our climate early warning system. So this training has been timely for us,” said Mr Malsale.

Most participants also highlighted the need for follow up training which would take stock of what had been implemented in the area of agro-meteorology and what remained to be done.

The training was delivered by Roger Eduardo Rivero Vega who has 50 years of professional experience and is one of the world’s leading experts in meteorology and Roger Rolando Rivero Jaspe who has more than 15 years of experience in climatology, hydrodynamics, agro-meteorology. This workshop is an activity of UNDP’s South South project which is funded by UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation and the UNDP-Japan Partnership Fund, with in-kind contributions from UNDP Pacific Centre from where it is coordinated.

ENDS

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