Ideas Marketplace presentation from ICRISAT - the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics. Presented at Agriculture, Landscapes and Livelihoods Day 5 in Doha Qatar, 3 December 2012. http://www.agricultureday.org

1. COP 18, Doha- Qatar
Climate Services to Support Farmer
Decision-Making Under
a Changing Climate
Dr. Arame Tall
Climate Services Scientist / Champion
a.tall@cgiar.org

2. 2 • 3/21/11
Our Common Challenge
• Reaching farmers with salient, downscaled, decision-relevant climate
information and advisory services
• Bottlenecks
prevent farmers’
access and use
of climate
information and
advisory services
Adapted from Tall et al.
2010

3. 3 • 3/21/11
Our Common Challenge
(cont’d)
•All elements (delivery, salience, legitimacy, and
equity) must be delivered in concert, to be useful for
farming communities, especially those most
vulnerable
•One Solution:
– Strong partnerships between National Met
Service, National Agricultural Research and
Extension Services and Boundary
Organizations with access to farmers.

4. 4 • 3/21/11
Bridging the information gap
• CCAFS assessment studies of
initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia that have grappled
with the challenges and
demonstrate good practice:
– India’s Integrated
Agrometeorological Advisory
Services (AAS), which recently
announced plans to scale up from 3
million to 10 million farmers
– Mali Projet d’Assistance au Monde
Rural, which has provided innovative Dr. Suresh Reddy, India assessment field
services to farmers since 1982 team member, interviewing a vulnerable
small landholder farmer on the usefulness
• Both provide evidence, at scale, of of agrometeorological advisories in Nimani
village, Andrah Pradesh (South India).
village level use and benefits of Photo credit: Arame Tall
climate information and advisories

5. 5 • 3/21/11
Learning from Good Practice in
Africa and South Asia
1. Frameworks for Dialogue
between climate scientists and
agricultural experts:
– Mali: Groupe de Travail Pluridisciplinaire
enables met service staff, agricultural
researchers and others to collate their
expertise, towards weather-based
advisory, farmers equipped with rain
gauges
– India: a network of State level Ms. Kalpana Venkat, India AAS study
Agricultural Research Universities field team coordinator, conducts a
Focus Group with the women of
receive 5-day weather forecasts from Amtrar, Himachal Pradesh (North
the national Meteorological department India). Photo credit: Arame Tall
as input to the production of a weather-
based advisory

6. 6 • 3/21/11
Learning from Good Practice in
Africa and South Asia
2. Partner with boundary
organizations to reach “the last
mile”:
– Both case studies mobilized NGOs,
CBOs, organized networks of
communicators, civil society
organizations to relay climate
information to farmers in remote
locations
3. Focus on equity:
– When women and other marginalized Assessing how Indian
farmers manage climate
groups receive the information, then all and weather risks in India.
receive and benefit Photo credit: Francesco
Fiondella

7. 7 • 3/21/11
Toward Strong Partnerships for
Effective Climate Risk Management
• Strong national partnerships, enabling framework for
collaboration among institutions, are prerequisites for effective
climate services for farmers.
• Participatory National Workshops for Climate Services:
used in various parts of Africa to bring together stakeholders,
establish a covenant to deliver salient climate services.
• Partnerships between national knowledge hubs, platform
for relevant partners to dialogue and pool expertise to respond
to farmers’ information needs.
• Bridging the gap between those who have information and
those who need this information most to adapt to a changing
climate. This dialogue will not happen in a vacuum.
Development partners must support and mediate the process.

8. 8 • 3/21/11
CCAFS’ agenda:
Scaling Up Climate Services for Farmers
2013-2015 in Africa and South Asia
• Goal:
– Assess Farmer Needs in farm-relevant Climate information and advisory
services
– Gauge appropriate Information Channels to reach farmer communities,
equitably
– Broker strong partnerships between national institutions, open spaces for
dialogue
– Deliver salient farmer-focused climate services
– Assess Impact on Farmer livelihoods from use of CSs

9. 9 • 3/21/11
Reaching Farmers with Climate
Services at Scale: Mission Possible
• CCAFS case studies demonstrate that
it is “Mission Possible” to enable
millions of farmers to deal with an
uncertain climate through locally
salient information and advisory
services.
• It is time to scale up demonstrated
good practice so many other farmers
can benefit from climate information
and advisory services.
The time is Right for Climate Services. Farmer in Ouelessebougou village,
happy beneficiary of Mali’s 30-year-
old agromet advisory program.
Credit: A. Tall
For more information, contact:
Arame Tall, a.tall@cgiar.org