The document summarizes a presentation on delivering climate services to farmers. It discusses the challenges of providing relevant climate information to farmers and strategies to overcome these, including through multi-stakeholder partnerships and tailored communication approaches. Examples are given of good practices delivering climate services to millions of farmers in Africa and South Asia through approaches like agro-advisory programs and cell phone-based information services.

1. 3rd International Conference on Climate Services, Dec. 4-6, 2013, Montego Bay (Jamaica)
Climate Services for Farmers
> Mission Possible
Lessons from Africa and South Asia
Dr. Arame Tall
Climate Services- Scientist, Champion
a.tall@cgiar.org

2. 2 • 3/21/11
Premise:
Information is Power
2

3. 3 • 3/21/11
Rationale: Why do Farmers
Need Climate Services?
Access to relevant
climate information
can Empower
farmers to
anticipate and
confront climaterelated risks
and opportunities

4. 4
Why Farmers are Not Getting
Relevant Climate Services
– On the Ground
• 3/21/11
Limited Dialogue
with End Users
to identify Needs,
build Trust !
A Multi-front challenge:
We need to work together
to overcome these
tenacious challenges to
Climate Service delivery
Inappropriate
Communication
channels to Get
the Message out
to farmers
Poor Observation
network /
Limited capacity
of NHMS to
address needs
Limited capacity of
end-users to act of
received forecasts–
Integration of CS
into development
support programs

5. Challenges to Scaling up
Climate Service for Farmers
5 • 3/21/11
• Salience: tailoring content, scale, format, lead-time to farm decisionmaking
• Legitimacy: giving farmers an effective voice in design and delivery
• Access: providing timely access to remote rural communities with
marginal infrastructure
• Equity: ensuring that women, poor, socially marginalized benefit
• Integration: climate services as part of a larger package of support

6. 18 Good Practice Cases
from Africa to South Asia
6 • 3/21/11
Delivering
tailored 5day
agro-met
advisories
for 3+ million
farmers in
India s Integra
-ted Agromet
Advisory
Service
Program
Involving farmers
through rain gages in
Mali s 30-year Agromet
advisory program
More at:
scalingup.iri.
columbia.edu
Cell-phone based
information service
delivery in Uganda
Grameen Foundation s
Community
Knowledge
Workers
Project
CYMMIT: Delivering on
Farmers Information
Needs in the IndoGangetic Plains of India
Farmer Seasonal Forecast Training in
Wote, Kenya
Kaffrine: Putting downscaled climate
forecasts into farmers hands
Lushoto:
Co-producing climate
services with farmers

7. 7 • 3/21/11
PRE-REQUISITE 1:
FROM CLIMATE INFORMATION
TO
CLIMATE SERVICE

8. 8 • 3/21/11
Courtesy: J. Hansen,
CCAFS/IRI

9. 9 • 3/21/11
Everyonethe National Chain in
Building has a role to Play of
Linking Knowledge to Action
Climate Services
Fig. 1: Different
stakeholders and
roles in national
Chain of Climate
Service
Production,
Tailoring and
Communication
National Hydro-Meteorological Services
(NHMS)
Production*of*downscaled*hydro3
meteorological*forecasts
NARES (Partners)
Packaging*of*climate*information*>*From*
Climate*Information*to*a*Climate*Service*
*Production*of*Agro3Met*Advisory!
Communicators & Boundary Organizations:
- Media – Extension Services – NGOs – CBOs Other community relays
Widespread*23way*Communication*of*
climate*information*and*advisory*services!
National level End-users
(rural development planners, policy makers, seed
distributors, fertilizer industry, private sector)
Final End-users
(farmers, pastoralists, communities at risk)
Credit:(Arame(Tall,(CCAFS(

10. Promoting Coordinated
Framework for Climate Services
10 • 3/21/11
Global
Regional
National
10

11. 11 • 3/21/11
PRE-REQUISITE 2:
FROM DISSEMINATION
TO
2-WAY COMMUNICATION

12. Communicating to Reach
‘last mile’
• Relevant communication
channels identified to reach
most vulnerable:
12 • 3/21/11
! SMS in local language
! Rural radio, media professionals
! Forecast bulletin boards in
strategic outposts across village
! At village mosque/church
! At water boreholes (women)
! Community relays/boundary
organizations (NGOs, CBOs)
! School children (vehicle)
Credit: Tall, CCAFS

13. 13 • 3/21/11
Training Intermediaries to
Communicate Climate Services
at Scale
Photo: As part of a new CCAFS-World Vision collaboration, Dr. Jim
Hansen trains World Vision staff on communicating forecast
uncertainty to farmers (Same, N. Tanzania). Credit: A. Tall, CCAFS

14. 14 • 3/21/11
PRE-REQUISITE 3:
HEED
GENDER AND EQUITY
IN DESIGN OF CLIMATE
SERVICE

15. Focusing on Equity in Service
Design and Delivery
15 • 3/21/11
• Identify specific service needs
of women and underserved
groups (in terms of content,
timing and delivery channels)
• Place specificity of needs
• Different social norms
from village to village
PAR in Kaffrine: Woman FGD identifying
climate service needs. Credit: Tall, CCAFS
Climate Service Needs of women farmers
in Fass (Left) different from those in Dioly
(right). Credit: Tall, CCAFS

16. 16 • 3/21/11
Giving Women an Effective
Voice in Design of Climate
Services
• Opening Spaces for iterative
dialogue, interaction and Coproduction of climate service
• PAR > key to success
– involving communities (community
diaries of local CC impacts)
– Capturing local innovation (forecast
bulletin boards, SMS language)
• Preliminary Results of Kaffrine
gender research end project
assessment
– Increase in access, from handful in
2011 to 100% by 2012
– Demonstrated Usefulness of
received information, for all
products across timescales
– Added value to traditional forecasts
Soxna Ndao, Dioly village, stating: ‘We women, need information
on when the rainy season will stop, as men plant for us later in
the season. Credit: A. Tall

17. 17 • 3/21/11
PRE-REQUISITE 4:
BUILD FARMER CAPACITY
TO USE
CLIMATE SERVICES

18. 18 • 3/21/11
Communicating Uncertainty
- Didactic Games
The shorter the
time range,
the more
accurate the
forecast
Credit: Mariane DiopKane, ANACIM
⇒ (Bringing(together(forecasters(and(farmers(to(put(climate(forecasts(
at(the(service(of(communities(at(risk(from(climate=related(risks(
Credit:(Red(Cross/
(
PetLab(
Malem
Djoly
Fass

19. Communicating Uncertainty in
Seasonal Climate Forecasts
19 • 3/21/11
> The Pobability Distribution
Function
Farmers(discussing(what(1mm(
of(rain(means…(
Credit:(J.(Hansen,(CCAFS (
(
Credit:(Dr.(Ousmane(Ndiaye,(ANACIM
Ousmane(Ndiaye,(ANACIM
(

20. ….To Wote, Eastern Kenya:
FarmerTrainings
20 • 3/21/11
Credit:(J.(Hansen,(IRI/CCAFS(
KPC(Rao,(ICRISAT((

21. 21 • 3/21/11
PRE-REQUISITE 5:
DESIGN, MONITOR AND
EVALUATE SERVICE
TO ENSURE ITS RELEVANCE

22. Developing M&E Framework
to Evaluate Climate Services
for Farmers
22 • 3/21/11
Goal: Develop M&E protocol to identify
farmer need for climate services
and measure added-value of climate
services for farmer communities,
with guidance on:
- Baseline collection
- Monitoring, re-assessment
- End project final impact assessment
• Locally-Relevant
• Gender responsive
3*Objectives*of*Assessment:
1.To inform design of new climate services and projects;"
2.To identify current gaps, and improve project effective and service delivery for farmers;!
3.To assess impact of provided services on farmers, and demonstrate project impact with a
dollar value (towards outcome reporting).!

23. Proposed M&E Framework
to Evaluate Climate Services for
Farmers
23 • 3/21/11
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24. Designing Tailored
Forecast products for Farmers
24 • 3/21/11
Based on identified user needs,
tailoring:
• In space: Geographic Downscaling
• In time: Seemless forecast
products across timescales:
– Seasonal > Monthly > Dekadal >
72h > 48h > 3h > nowcasting
– Historical Data Trends Analysis
– Key to building trust and
empowering farmers to monitor risks
as season unfolds
• In Content (hazards, info needed)
• In Lead time (alert thresholds)
• In message format, language
& delivery channel
WEATHER
HOURS
DAYS
WEEKS
MONTHS
Decision Making is local. Blended Station and
Satellite data is one way forward to downscale
climate forecasts, and enable climate forecasts
to serve local decision-making.
Courtesy: J. Hansen, CCAFS/IRI
CLIMATE
YEARS
DECADES
…

25. 25 • 3/21/11
CCAFS OBJECTIVE:
10M farmers by 2016
equipped with tailored climate services for improved management of climate risks
http://dmu.icrisat.ac.in/CCAFS_CIS_Home.aspx

26. 26 • 3/21/11
CCAFS Strategy to Scale Up
Climate Services for Farmers
1. Identify Good practice
2. Upscale Climate Services to millions of farmers
– Promoting National Frameworks for Climate Services
– Brokering strong partnerships between
NHMSs, Agr Research and Extension
to produce tailored agro-met advisories
– Leveraging new ICTs, media professionals
NGOs and boundary organisations for
effective 2-way communication
3. Build evidence base on livelihood outcomes for
farmers - making the case for Climate Services

27. Scaling up Climate Services
for millions of Farmers
> Mission Possible
27 • 3/21/11
•
•
•
•
Operational Climate Services for
Farmers is a multi-front challenge
Examples surveyed by CCAFS prove
however that it is Mission Possible
today to reach millions of farmers with
salient and downscaled climate
information and advisory services
relevant to support their decisionmaking under an uncertain climate.
It is time to Scale Up this approach for
many other farmers to have access and
benefit from available climate
information and advisory services.
The time is Right for Climate
Services.
For more information, contact:
Arame Tall, a.tall@cgiar.org
Photo: Women Farmers in Amtrar, Himachal
Pradesh (India), discussing how they benefit from
agromet advisories. Credit: A. Tall, CCAFS